Something Blue, New and Borrowed
by Roxydesigns
Summary: Goes AU at the end of IWRY, Angel moves back to Sunnydale and he and Buffy try to restart their lives together. But will his new lively state be enough to keep them together, or will outside forces break them apart? Contains Spuffy but ultimately BANGEL
1. Chapter 1

**This chapter is now officially rewritten! It sucked before, coz it wasn't really any different than the episode _Something Blue_ except a few added dialogues. Now I think it's more my own stuff than that so…I hope you guys like it better! Also, I wanted to rewrite it, because I think (hope) my writing has improved along the later chapters, and I didn't think this sucky chapter was a good way to start the story because people who will be reading it for the first time will be like, oh this story sucks I'm not gonna read it…so, I rewrote it! I left a lot of stuff the same as it was in the original one, but I think it's better now…**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Buffyness…  
Spoilers: Maaaajor _Something Blue_ spoilers for this chapter, so beware!**

**This story takes place after _I will remember you_, only the Mohra demon doesn't say all that stuff about the end of days etc. So just pretend that the episode ended when Buffy killed the demon (without him saying that stuff), and Angel is still human. **

* * *

Giles entered the living room of his house, after trying to get information out of Spike, but it just wasn't much use without Buffy. Not that she was getting anywhere with him. Spike was such an irritating vampire; it was like talking to a brick wall. Only brick walls were more fun to talk to, because they didn't reply with sarcastic and annoying comments. There was a knock on the door, and he opened to reveal Willow, looking worried. 

"Hi Giles." She said, trying to sound cheery.

"Willow, hi, come in." Giles said and he stepped aside to let Willow in, who walked to the couch and sat down.

"So any word from Buffy?" She asked anxiously.

"Well, erm, no." Giles said, and he took off his glasses to clean them.

"She's been gone for two days! She said she was just going to see Angel to tell him not to go around her back anymore. Do you think something happened?" She said, worry evident in her voice.

"I'm not sure."

"I mean, she would've called if she was staying longer, wouldn't she?"

Just as Giles was about to reply, to door opened and Buffy entered the house.

"Buffy!" Willow cried as she jumped up. "Where were you? What happened, did something happen?"

"Willow, calm down." Buffy said with an amused smile. "Nothing happened – well, _something_ happened, but nothing of the bad."

"Something that took you two days to come back? What?"

A huge grin spread across Buffy's face. She sat down on the couch, followed by Willow. "Okay. So, I come to LA. I talk a bit to Angel, you know. And all of the sudden this demon crashes through the window and attacks us –"

Giles' head perked up. "Oh, are you alright?" He asked with a concerned frown.

"I'm fine Giles." Buffy said with a smile. "So anyway, it got away, so we followed it. Angel and I split up and I went to look for it at the beach. After a little while, I turn around and I see Angel walking up to me! In broad daylight!" She said excitedly.

Willow and Giles gape at her. "But…how?" Willow asks softly.

"He was wearing the Gem of Amara you gits!" Spike yelled from the bathroom, having heard all of it with his vampire hearing.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "No he wasn't, he destroyed that." She said back and turned her attention back to Willow and Giles, who were still gaping at her. "Turns out, the demon that attacked us had very powerful blood, and when it was accidentally mixed with Angel's blood, it made him human."

"Dear lord." Giles let out, taking off his glasses again and started cleaning them briskly. "Wh – what kind of demon was it?"

"A uh…Mohra demon. Angel thought he killed it, but it came back, so I killed it by smashing the jewel thingy on it's head."

After staring at Buffy in sort of a state of shock, Willow snapped back to reality. "So Angel is human now?"

Buffy nodded her head, and the grin reappeared on her face. "Yup!"

"And you're back together?"

"Well yeah."

"Oh my god this is huge!" Willow exclaimed, suddenly as excited at Buffy. "So where is he now?"

"Oh he's still in LA. He's gotta take care of a few things there before he comes back here."

Giles stood up. "B – Buffy I don't think it's wise of you to jump back into this relationship when you cannot be entirely sure this thing is permanent."

"Giles we checked it out. Angel went to the Oracles – they're these guys that speak for the Powers that Be – and he asked if it was permanent, and they said it was. That he was released from his fealty or something."

"Oh well t – that's good." Giles said as he sat back down. "But I still say you should be cautious. I'll do some research on this Mohra demon, as a precaution."

Buffy smiled at Giles's concern. "Thanks Giles."

"Oh Buffy this is so great! You finally get to be with Angel in a normal relationship!" Willow beamed, but actually feeling jealous of her best friend. She got her Angel back…but where was _her_ Oz?

"I know, it's so amazing!"

Giles smiled. "Alright, now that we've all recovered from Buffy's news, I think it's about time we start hearing Spike out about what information he has on the commandos. I would like him out of here as soon as possible; he's been driving me insane these past days."

"Sorry Giles. I'll get on it right away." She said with an apologetic smile.

"I'll hit the books to see if there's a way we can get him to talk, if he's, you know, not talking." Willow said, and they get up.

Buffy and Giles entered the bathroom where Spike was lying chained up in the bathtub. "So the big poof is human now is he? Must be a dream come true for the lot of you." He said sarcastically. He was really fed up with having to lie here all day, being interrogated by this annoying lot.

"Shut up Spike. Tell us what you know about the commandos."

"I'm not really sure. You've got to be more specific with your questions." Annoying these white hats seemed to be the only thing he was still capable of these days, so he was bloody well gonna do it!

Buffy let out an exasperated sigh and sat down on the edge of the bathtub. "Fine, what did they look like?"

"Don't know, they had the army clothes on, and I saw their faces but that's all."

Giles rolled his eyes and went to the kitchen to get some blood.

"So, you saw their faces but you can't describe them?"

"Well, they were human. Two eyes each, kind of in the middle." Spike said playing coy.

"Uhuh." Buffy said, getting annoyed. "And the lab?"

"Underground." Spike said, and sighs. "I don't know exactly where, I came out through an air vent. I'm done. Put the telly on." He said and stretches his neck to see the TV.

Giles re-entered the bathroom with a blood-filled mug that said "Kiss the Librarian".

"It's about time! Hope you got it warm enough." Spike exclaimed.

Buffy took the mug from Giles and leaned down so Spike can drink from the straw that was protruding from the mug. She wrinkled her nose in a disgusted look as Spike hungrily started drinking the blood.  
He stoped drinking for a second and looks at Buffy. "I don't know why you're so dainty all of the sudden. You've done this for Angel, you must have." He said, and continues drinking right before Buffy snatched the mug away.

"Hey! Give it!" He said with the straw between his lips.

"That's it! The invalid routine is over. The kitchen is closed until you can tell us something useful about the commandos." Buffy said and put the mug out of reach.

* * *

Buffy walked through the halls of school, on her way to her next class. 

"Hey Buffy." She heard Riley's voice behind her and turned around.

"Hi Riley." She said without too much enthusiasm. She used to like Riley…a little. But with Angel back into her life she wasn't really up to dealing with Riley swooning over her.

"I was looking for you the other day." He said, not noticing the tone in her voice.

"Really?" Buffy asked, trying to sound interested.

"Yeah, see I was planning on asking you out…but when I practiced it kept ending up sounding really stupid, so I was wondering if maybe we could start out with a picnic?"

"A picnic?" She asked skeptically. And did he just say he practiced? She almost felt sorry for him. Here he was, probably trying to ask her out, thinking she was still single and all when she just got back together with the love of her life. Oh well, he'll just have to deal.

"Yeah I was thinkin' — do you ever hang out at Rhode's field? It's beautiful there. Usually not that crowded, either. I thought maybe we could have a little spread — sandwiches, maybe some ants? It'll be fun."

Buffy frowns a bit. "Oh, Riley, you know that sounds real nice, but…" She sighed as she saw Riley's hopeful face. "I'm kind of involved with someone…" She trailed off when she saw Willow approaching looking really sad. "Uhm, will you excuse me for a second?" She asked and she walked over to Willow without waiting for an answer, happy to have an excuse to get away from him.

"Hey Will, are you okay?" She asked softly.

Willow took a deep breath. "Well, I'm not good, but I'm a little, tiny, teensy bit better than last night."

"It'll be better." Buffy promised as she put her arm around her friend and they started walking towards the next class.

* * *

Life wasn't fair. Oz was gone and he wasn't coming back, her 'I will it so' spell hadn't even worked, and now her friends didn't have time for her anymore either. Couldn't they see how much pain she was in? But no, Buffy had to go after Spike. It wasn't even like he could do anything with that thing in his head! "Spike's more important than me. I get it." Willow said insulted. 

"Buffy's gotta find out what's up with those commandos. Right now she needs Spike." Xander said trying to ease Willow's hurt.

"Well, fine. Why doesn't so just go marry him?" She said sarcastically and her eyes went blue-glowy as she unknowingly made something happen with the 'I will it so' spell she didn't think had worked.

* * *

Buffy stood up straight from threatening Spike as she suddenly felt something surge through her. She took a good like at Spike and al of the sudden she felt undying, beautiful and passionate love for him, really wishing they'd get married someday soon. She quickly removed the ropes from around his body and freed him. He got up and kissed Buffy passionately, suddenly feeling a strong urge to touch her, hold her in his arms and keep her his forever. 

"Here, sit down." He said gently, and got down on one knee as Buffy sat down on the chair, looking expectantly at Spike.

Spike searched his pockets for something, and when he didn't find anything, he pulled off his own ring of a skull and held it up for Buffy. "Buffy," He started, "We've known each other for a long time now, and, I think it's time for us to take the next step. Will you marry me?"

Just then Giles stepped out of the bathroom. "If the two of you could remain, civil, long enough to adj-" He stopped talking when he saw the scene in front of him.

"It's just so sudden. I don't know what to say." Buffy said with tears forming in her eyes.

"Just say yes, and make me the happiest man on earth." Spike said looking at Buffy with honest and hopeful eyes.

"Oh, Spike! Of course it's yes!" She said happily, and they both got up and kissed and hugged.

Giles took a step forward, taking off his glasses, trying to comprehend what just happened. Then Buffy saw him. "Giles! You'll never believe what's happened!" She said as she held up Spike's ring that was now around her finger.

* * *

"It's just not fair." Willow said as she flopped down on a chair in front of Xander. 

"Willow, I know it's hard to see it right now, but everything you're feeling is because of you and Oz. Not because of Buffy and me or anybody. But eventually you'll meet somebody else, and it'll be better."

"Yeah, coz most relationships are great, and trouble free. I don't think so. I think we're all doomed to badness." Somewhere she knew Xander was just trying to help, but right now, he was just making her mad. Why couldn't he just see in how much pain she was?

"We're not doomed."

"Oh right, Buffy and Angel, but that's only by accident."

Xander blinked confused. "What? What's with Buffy and Angel?"

Willow sighed. "Angel's human so they're back together."

Xander's eyes grew big. "What? Human? How?" He asked as an involuntarily twinge of jealousy shot through him. It wasn't that he was still in love with Buffy anymore, that was years ago. He just didn't like Angel, and that was mainly because Buffy chose Angel over him.

"And that's another thing! Why do we always end up in a relationship with a demon?" Willow went on, ignoring Xander.

"That's not true, Will."

"Oh yeah? Let's – let's look at your bio. Insect lady, Mummy girl, Anya. You're a demon magnet." As she said this the blue light once again went through her eyes.

Xander looked up. "Hey I was just trying to help."

* * *

Later that night, Buffy just came out of the bridal shop, where she just _had _to stop after going to the magic shop. She looked in her shopping bag and smiled when she pulled out a cake topper, with the man and woman both blonde. She sighed dreamily. How beautiful her wedding with Spike was gonna be. Him in a tux, which would probably make him look even yummier than he did now, her in a beautiful white wedding gown…she sighed again. 

"Buffy." She heard a gentle voice say, snapping her out of her daydreams.

"Huh?" She looked up, and came eye to eye with, "Angel." She said a little surprised. He smiled sweetly at her. "Wh – what are you doing here?" She asked. Uh-oh Spike was _not_ going to like him being here!

"Things in LA went a little faster than I thought, so I thought why wait?" He said with a smile, and leaned in to kiss her, but Buffy quickly backed away a bit. "What's wrong?" He asked with a slight frown.

"I uh…" She looked down, trying to find the right words. "I can't see you anymore, Angel." She said, and looked back up into his eyes.

His frown grew deeper. "What do you mean y-…why not?"

She took a deep breath. "I'm with someone else…a-and it's really serious."

"Who, that dull boy?" Angel asked, thinking of the guy he had seen her talking with on Thanksgiving. "Buffy, what's going on? I thought you wanted to – I thought _we_ were serious." Angel said, not understanding why she was saying this. Two days ago they were together again, happier than ever, finally able to truly be together without danger, and now this…

"We were, but…" She sighed, coming close to drifting off into dreamland again. "You wanna see the ring?" She asked excitedly.

"The ring?" He asked fearfully.

Buffy held out her left hand and showed him a big skull shaped ring on her ring finger. "Isn't it beautiful?" She beamed.

Angel stared at the ring in horror. This wasn't happening, this just _couldn't_ be real! No way Buffy would ever do this, she loved him, they loved each other! And who was this asshole to give her such an ugly ring?

"And the way he proposed was just _so_ sweet and romantic…"

Angel's head jerked up, and he suddenly grabbed her by the upper arms. "What is going on Buffy?" He demanded.

She smiled sadly as she looked into his eyes. "I'm sorry Angel, but it's over. I'm getting married to the man I love and there's nothing you can do about it."

"Beg to differ." Angel said through gritted teeth, feeling a mixture of hurt, confusedness and anger.

"Let me go, Spike'll notice you've been close to me." Buffy said. "He doesn't even want me to talk about you, let alone you _touching_ me!"

With a frown Angel suddenly released her. "What the hell does Spike have to do with this? Is he back in town?" With the mention of Spike his anger only rose, and he desperately needed to pound on something. Preferably the bleached idiot.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Well duh, how could we get married if he's not in town?"

He stared at her dumbfounded. "So…you're marrying…Spike." He said slowly, trying to understand what in the hell was going on.

"Yes, I thought I told you already."

"And…you're sure it's Spike? The one you hate?" Suddenly it was starting to become clear that there most be something strange going on. Strange as in, demonical or magic…

Buffy snorted. "No silly, I don't hate him! I love him! I mean, yeah, he can be a little annoying, and sometimes I don't even really like him but…I love him. I do." She said dreamily.

"Buffy, do you realize what you're saying?" She stared at him blankly. "You're talking about _Spike_ here! You're probably even under a spell or something. I'm _sure_ it's a spell!"

She let out an exasperated sigh. "It's not a spell, it's real love. Spike and I love each other. Now I'm really sorry it didn't work out between us, but I have to go take care of blind Giles." She turned to walk away, but Angel grabbed her arm.

"Giles is blind?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "If you don't believe me, come with to see for yourself."

Now he was sure it was a spell of some kind. It just _had _to be because if it wasn't…he couldn't even think of it, it was just too surreal. Buffy would never even consider _liking_ Spike, let alone love him!  
He knew it, but deep down he couldn't really believe it. The pain of her saying those things too him was just too much, even if it wasn't real.

**

* * *

Hm, I think it's somewhat better now…I hope. I think I'm gonna rewrite chapter two a bit too, coz that one also seemed a little lame to me…Okay, see ya! Review please and tell me what you think of the new and improved chapter one!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hiya people, I'm really sorry for not updating sooner. I was kinda busy with school and stuff…  
But here's the second chapter, and there's almost no Something Blue stuff in there, so, Jay no more stuff you've read/seen a dozen times before,…I hope :P**

**Disclaimer: Yeah yeah, I own nothing, all is owned by Joss and his chums…That guy's bloody brilliant!**

* * *

Buffy and Angel enter Giles' house. Upon seeing Angel, Spike jumps up. "What the bloody hell is _he_ doing here?" He asks, and looks accusingly at Buffy. 

Before Angel can stop her, Buffy hurries to Spike and puts her arms around him. "He just showed up, nothing happened I _swear_!"

Spike relaxes a bit in Buffy's embrace, but doesn't stop glaring at Angel, who in return glares back with an expression of – if possible – even more hatred. Feeling he has to prove that Buffy is his, Spike takes her face between his hands, and gives her a mind blowing kiss.

Angel makes a sound that would be a loud growl if he was still a vampire, and is about to attack when he hears a loud thump coming from the bathroom. With one last glare at Spike, who is still heavily making out with Buffy, he hurries out of the room. "Giles?" He says as he sees Giles rubbing his head, having apparently walking into the doorframe.

Giles looks up confused, but seeing nothing but black. "Angel? Is that you?"

"What happened?"

"Well I seem to have er, hit the doorway on my way out of the bathroom."

"I mean, how did you become blind?" Angel says, as he guides Giles back towards the living room.

"Well I was still trying to look into that, but it's considerably more difficult without being able to see. I tried to contact Willow, but I couldn't reach her. But I'm certain it's a spell of some sort, having possibly something to do with the uhm…freak show, going on in there." Giles says, nodding into the direction of which he thinks Buffy and Spike are.

"Yeah what is he doing here anyway? Last time I saw him he was impaling me with hot pokes." Angel says bitterly as he sits Giles down, and glares once again at Spike, who is now sitting with Buffy in his lap.

"Yes well, that is a rather complicated story that will be preserved for another time, perhaps when this spell is lifted." Giles says.

Angel is about to reply, when suddenly the door bursts open and Xander and Anya run in. "Board up the windows, and barricade the door!" Xander yells, closing the door and peeking outside to see if there are any demons following him.

Spike and Buffy both stand up. "What's going on?" Giles asks, trying his hardest to see what's happening.

"Demons. They keep coming and coming!" Anya says as she and Xander walk further into the room.

"I think we lost them, but I couldn't see – Spike! He's all untied!" He exclaims as he sees Spike standing next to Buffy, receiving a "duh" look from Spike and Buffy, and an angry eye-roll from Angel. "Which you probably noticed." And then he looks at Angel. "Angel! What are you doing here?"

"Xander, calm down okay? If you lost them that'll give us some time to figure this out. Maybe the demons have something to do with Giles being blind." Buffy says as she looks at Spike and grabs his hand.

"Giles is blind?" Anya asks, as Xander moves over to Giles and waves two fingers in front of Giles' face.

"Please stop, whatever you're doing. You smell like fruit roll-ups." Giles says.

Spike looks at the people in the room and frowns incredulously. "This is the crack team that foils my every plan? I am deeply shamed."

"Spike's right. We really should get organized." Buffy says, stroking Spike's arm.

Xander and Anya stare at Spike and Buffy. "Why are you holding hands?" Anya asks with a frown.

Buffy and Spike turn to each other and look at each other lovingly. "They have to hear it sooner or later." Spike says.

Buffy giggles as she turns back to Anya and Xander and hugs Spike. "Spike and I are getting married!"

Angel watches them from the corner of the room with a hurt expression on his face. It's a spell, he tries to tell himself, but seeing them kissing and hugging was just too painful.

Xander looks baffled at the hugging couple. "How? What? How?" He asks.

"Three excellent questions." Giles says dryly.

"Angel! Can't you do something about this? Come on, she's your girlfriend, right?" Xander asks desperately.

"Believe me when I say I'd love to." Angel says through gritted teeth.

"Hey! She bloody well isn't _his_ girlfriend! That poof had his chance, she chose _me_!" Spike says insulted. Then he smirks at Angel, who looks like he's about to attack. "Guess she lost interest when you became human, the girl really does need a little bit of monster in her man." He says and turns his attention back to Buffy.

"You better believe it." Buffy says as she hungrily attacks his lips with her own.

"Can I be blind, too?" Xander asks, him and Anya both turning their heads away. "Wait…married…I know something…what is it? Everything's so familiar…work, brain – work! Oh! Oh oh! Willow!" He exclaims excitedly.

"Mm, what about Will…Mmm, honey, get off." Buffy says between kisses, and pulls away from Spike to focus on Xander.

"Something about Willow and her griefy-poor-me mood swings – so, so tired of it." Xander says.

"You mean I don't have to be nice about her anymore?" Anya asks hopefully.

"Well, we're all tired of it, but what does it have to do with what's going on?" Buffy asks with a frown, not getting the connection.

"She told me I was a demon magnet, a-and you two should get married." Xander says with a gesture to Buffy and Spike.

"And…that I didn't see anything." Giles says as something dawns upon him.

"She did a spell." Buffy says looking at Spike.

"Yes, to have her will done. Whatever she says is coming true." Giles says.

"And you both were affected! I probably only escaped because I'm the Slayer…some kind of natural immunity." Buffy muses, as Spike caresses her upper arms tenderly, looking intently at her.

"Yeah. Right. You're marrying Spike because you're so rich for each other." Xander says sarcastically.

"Xander!" Buffy says insulted.

"That's it – you're of the usher list."

"I think we should focus on finding Willow." Angel says, eager to get the spell lifted.

"Yes she is out there and she probably doesn't know what she's doing." Giles says.

"Angel's right, we gotta find her." Xander says.

"Before somebody gets really hurt." Buffy says and they all head for the door, including Giles, causing him to trip over the couch he was sitting on and crash into something.

* * *

After heading out to find Willow they wound up being chased by dozens of demons, and now they're in some sort of crypt. While Anya, Xander and Angel are trying to fight off the demons, Spike and Buffy are too caught up in their make-out session to help out. 

Suddenly Willow appears, being transported from Arashmahar by D'Hoffryn, after having declined a job as a vengeance demon. She looks at the scene in front of her, feeling mighty stupid for having caused this. "Let the healing power begin. Let my will be safe again. As these words of peace are spoken, let this harmful spell be broken." She chants, lifting her _I Will It So_ spell. A loud thunder crashes, and suddenly the demons disappear.

Buffy and Spike freeze, and she pulls back with shock. Realizing just who they were kissing, they both crunch their faces up in disgust. "Oh, ugh…!" She lets out and quickly gets away from Spike.

"Oh, bloody hell!" Spike yells as he jumps up. Both wiping their mouths and gagging.

"Spike lips! Lips of Spike!" Buffy says grossed out.

Then they all notice Willow standing there. She smiles awkwardly, and waves slightly, feeling terribly guilty for having caused all this. "Hi guys."

Realization dawns upon Buffy, and she looks around frantically for Angel, and sees him standing behind a grave tomb. He tries to give her a tiny smile as she looks at him with a guilty and apologetic look on her face.

* * *

Buffy walks up to Angel sitting in the corner of Giles' house. "Hey." She says with a soft smile, and sits down in front of him. "How are you?" 

"I'll live." Angel says softly.

"I'm _really_ sorry. That whole spell thing was just…ugh." She shudders at the thought of kissing Spike. "That was _so_ wrong on _so many_ levels. And you just had to stand there and watch that, I can't imagine how horrible that must have been."

Angel looks down, cursing himself for not being able to express his feelings well. "Seeing you with Spike…I admit it hurt, even though I knew it wasn't real…"

"I know." Buffy whispers as she softly touches Angel's hand. "…Do you…Do you still want to be with me?" She asks, afraid of his answer.

Angel smiles slightly at her. "Always. I just…" He trails off, not quite knowing how to say it.

"Need time." Buffy finishes for him with a nod.

* * *

Angel lies in his old bed in the mansion, where he's staying until he can move into the apartment he rented. Staring at the sealing he keeps hearing Spike's words from earlier. What if he wasn't enough for Buffy anymore? Maybe now as a human, not being able to fight for her, she'd get bored with him. 

Spike'd said she needed a monster in her man…what if he was right? As the Slayer, maybe she needed someone who could match her strength, who could fit into her world.  
But then again, her friends, the Scoobies, didn't have any special strength and they patrolled with her all the time.  
But then again, during his fight with all the demons he'd noticed that he was in fact still quite strong. Stronger than a normal human being is, but not as strong as he was as a vampire. Maybe some of his strength stayed with him…

Deciding he'd talk to her in the morning - still feeling a slight twinge of giddiness at the thought of being able to go out in the morning – he goes to sleep.

* * *

"Ugh, it was so gross! I still can't believe I actually kissed _Spike_!" Buffy says as she lies on her bed in her and Willow's dorm room. 

"Yeah, did I mention how very sorry I am?" Willow says, sitting on the other bed, and nervously playing with the sleeve of her sweater.

Buffy sits up. "I bet Angel totally hates me now."

"Did he say that?" Willow asks wide-eyed.

"No, he didn't. But I could tell he was hurt. I mean, I get it, it's just like that thing with Faith last year, you know? I knew it wasn't real, but it hurt anyway." Buffy sighs, and lies back down, frustrated. "Why can't it ever just be easy and carefree? There's _always_ something standing in the way!"

Willow nods slightly, knowing all too well about stuff standing in the way of a relationship. "Well maybe, if you talk to him tomorrow, you can resolve it, and you can finally be together as a normal couple." She says, trying to sound cheery and happy for Buffy, but the sadness inside of her seeps into her voice.

"Oh Will, I'm sorry." Buffy says, sitting up again. "Here I am rubbing my petty problems in your face when…I'm sorry." She looks apologetic at her.

"It's okay, Buffy. I don't want to be all whiney, seeing as that was what caused the whole Spike-marriage thing."

"You know what, let's just drop the subject of guys for the rest of the evening." Buffy says, and Willow nods in agreement.

They stay silent for a minute, trying to think of something to say, when Buffy remembers something. "I think Riley tried to ask me out on a date the other day." She says with a frown.

Willow's eyes grow big. "Really? What did you say?"

"Well I really didn't know what to tell him you know, I mean I feel kinda bad. I mean I think I was starting to like him, but now I'm back together with Angel, and when Riley came up to me, all I wanted to was for him to just go away, you know? I think I started to tell him I was involved, but then you came up so I kinda saw my chance to escape..." Buffy trails off, feeling a bit ashamed of her harshness towards Riley.

Willow looks pensive. "Maybe you should talk to him about that, you know, set him straight before he gets ideas into his head."

"Right." Buffy says with a nod.

"Besides, I didn't really think he was your type anyway."

"Oh really?" Buffy asks intrigued. "What would you say _is_ my type?"

"Hm, I think you're more of a dark, broody, vampirey-"

"- _ex-_vampirey." Buffy interrupts with a smile.

"Right, ex-vampirey, tall guy kind of girl."

"Really? Hm, no idea where you get that from." Buffy says with a laugh. Then she smacks herself on her head. "Damn, here we are again talking about guys! Okay, new topic." They stay silent for another minute.

"So…" Willow starts.

"Yeah, so…"

* * *

Buffy sits nervously at the table in the Espresso Pump, where Angel called to meet her earlier. She twirls around the cup of coffee in her hands, stretching her neck to see if Angel's already in view. She came early, hoping she would have enough time to both mentally and physically prepare. She was afraid of what Angel would say. Maybe he'd break up with her, go back to LA. But that wasn't fair, it wasn't her fault, it was Willow's spell.  
No, he wouldn't do that, she was sure. 

Too consumed with her thoughts she missed Angel walking up to her, and only noticed him until he sat down in across from her.

Her head shoots up. "Angel, hi!" She says, sounding as nervous as she is.

"Hey." Angel says with a slight smile.

Buffy smiles, relaxing a bit. "You look good in sunlight."

Returning the smile Angel looks up at the sky. "Yeah it still feels pretty amazing." He turns his attention to Buffy. "You don't look too bad yourself. Beautiful, in fact."

Buffy blushes. "Thank you." She says softly, and they stare into each other's eyes for a while, both relishing in each other's presence. "So uh, what did you wanna talk about?" Buffy finally asks.

"Right." Angel says, focussing on what he wanted to say. "This thing with you and Spike it's…" He sighs, trying to find the words, even though he thought of what to say all night. "Remember that time with Faith?" Buffy nods, having used the example for Willow herself. "I think I know how you feel now."

"But it was a spell, I would _never_-"

"I know." Angel quietly interrupts. "I know you wouldn't, but seeing you…kissing him…it hurt. But I also know that I love you. More than anything I've ever known. And I can't stand not being with you, not again."

Buffy looks at him hopefully. "So…are you saying…"

"That whole break thing, I was talking about earlier? Forget that. I just want to be with you."

"Really?" Buffy asks with a relieved sigh.

"Yeah, really." Angel smiles.

They both get up and meet in a fierce embrace. "I love you so much." Buffy says with a muffled voice. "Let's never let anything come between us again."

"Never." Angel agrees, and pulls away slightly to capture Buffy's lips in a passionate kiss.

* * *

Buffy watches Willow and Xander dancing in the Bronze, trying to ignore Anya's endless chatter about allowing Xander to dance with Willow. 

"…And I said to him: 'Xander, I know she's your female friend, who you are _only_ friends with, but if she tries any funny stuff I'll have her guts ripped out by my demon friends.' And so I let him dance with her, which I think is pretty noble of me." Anya finishes.

"Uhuh, that's uh…nice." Buffy says with a small frown.

Anya takes a sip from her coke as she watches Xander intently, and then looks at Buffy. "So, that dark and broody Angel fellow is human now?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah he is."

"How did that happen?" Anya asks interested.

"His blood got mixed with that of a Mohra demon. Their blood's very powerful revival stuff, and so it made him human."

"Ohh, yes of course! I've seen that happen before." Anya smiles at the memory. "Poor guy, couldn't adapt to being human again and died because he kept drinking blood instead of eating normal food." She shakes her head.

Buffy stares at her. "Right…" She looks around, trying to catch a glimpse of Angel somewhere, but when she turns around she comes face to face with Riley.

"Hey Buffy." He says with a smile.

"Hey." Buffy says.

"Hi Riley!" Willow says cheerfully when she and Xander return to the table.

"Hey Willow. How's it going?"

"I'm good! I've been a little down lately coz, you know, Oz." Riley nods understanding. "But I'm doing better now."

"Yeah she even put on some suave dance moves up there." Xander says with a grin.

"I'm not threatened." Anya says to him with a reassuring voice.

"Say, speaking of dance moves, where's the not-so-much-undead guy? Didn't you say he was coming Buff?" Xander asks, forgetting that Riley is right there.

"What?" Riley asks.

"Oh." Xander giggles nervously. "We just call him that, coz uhm, he can be really serious. You know, dead-like serious?" He says lamely.

"I think he's just running late Xand." Buffy quickly says before Riley can speak. "So uhm, Riley what's up?"

"Huh?" Riley asks, becoming a little confused, but also suspicious because of the undead thing.

"You came over here; I figured you maybe wanted to ask something."

"Oh that. No I just wanted to say hi and maybe hang a little."

"Oh, okay."

Angel enters the Bronze, scanning the crowd for Buffy and the gang. When he spots her, he right away notices the dull looking tall guy talking to her. Squinting his eyes he recognizes him as the guy Buffy was talking flirty to on Thanksgiving, and involuntarily a small pit of jealousy rises in his stomach.  
He walks up to them and puts his hand on Buffy's shoulder, who turns around and smiles brightly at him. "Angel." She says and leans in for a kiss.

Riley watches with shock. He thought for sure Buffy was single, and also that she liked him. Or at least a little bit.

When Buffy sees Angel looking at Riley she inwardly rolls her eyes when she sees him do the macho stand tall thing she saw him do before with Owen and Ford. "Oh right." She says. "Angel this is Riley, Riley this is Angel."

They both try to act nicely and shake hands, both eyeing each other warily. Angel's pale complexion not going unnoticed by Riley. "So you're Buffy's boyfriend."

"Yes." Angel says simply.

"Funny, she never told me about you."

"We just got back together." Buffy says, trying to end the staring contest between the two tall men.

"Right, so who's up for refills?" Xander asks and gets up to get more drinks.

* * *

"He's a vampire." Riley says as he and Forrest are on their way to the Commando lab. 

"Oh come on man, just coz your honey's taken doesn't mean her guy's actually e-"

"-No I mean, I'm serious. He was really pale, and his clothes, they were all dark. Oh, and I heard her friend Xander say something about being undead about him. Now don't tell me that's not suspicious."

"Sounds a little unusual maybe, but who knows, maybe the guy's a Dracula fan with a sun allergy. Not everyone with a bad complexion's an HST."

"Maybe, but I still say we look into him. And that's an order."

"Yes sir." Forrest says with a mocking salute.

**

* * *

A/N: Hey guys, chapter three might take a while…again…because I'm kinda trying to figure out what I'm gonna do with the story. You see, I sorta tend to have an idea for a story, and I write like the first chapter, and in that I work out the idea I had, but then I don't know what to do anymore…Maybe I should think about that _before_ I post a story…Oh well, see ya soon!**

**Also, I think I kinda rushed it in this chapter with the Something Blue thing, and the Buffy/Angel thing...let me know what you think please!  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**Bonsoir meine ganz geile people! Ooh look at that, three languages in one sentence, how 'bout that! Ahem, right, anyway, Thank you all for your reviews!  
_Lessthanangelic1_: I actually had an idea very similar to that, but not exactly, but I still hope you'll like it!  
It was cool, I was writing this one scene in this chapter, and it started out a little crappy, but as I was writing it, I was like "oooh inspiration coming upon me" and it turned out pretty good (I hope)!**

**Disclaimer: Okay, Joss Whedon is cool, I know it, you know it, we all know it. He, and a few other writer people, are the genius guys behind the entire operation I like to call Buffy: The Slayer of, the Vampyrs (And Angel, and some other shows/movies but we're not getting into that). So nothing is being owned by me.**

* * *

"So, Spike has a chip in his head, and he can't hurt anyone anymore?" Angel asked incredulously, on the verge of laughing out loud. 

"Yup, he's a harmless little puppy." Buffy said, leaning hear head on Angel's chest, absentmindedly looking around for vampire to show up in _this_ graveyard. It had been an awfully slow night. She and Angel were now sitting against a gravestone, taking an unneeded break from patrolling.

"But why didn't you just dust him?"

Buffy sighed. "Well, first of all, he has inside info about the commando guys that keep showing up and gave him the chip. Second, he's defenseless, and as much as I hate him, I can't kill someone who can't fight back, no matter how evil and annoying he is."

Angel nodded. "I guess you're right. Still…I'd like to see him dust."

"Believe me, me too." Buffy nodded in agreement. She then got up. "I don't think we're gonna see much action here, let's call it a night."

"Yeah." Angel said as she got up too.

"Maybe now you can show me your apartment? You moved in earlier today right?"

"Yeah, but I don't have much stuff, only the necessities, like a bed, a table –"

"-Oh that's fine, we won't need much other than the bed anyway." Buffy said innocently.

Angel grinned slightly, and they started heading out of the cemetery. "You had something in mind?"

"Maybe."

* * *

"So let's see, you told me his name's Angel. Is that is _real_ name?" Forrest asked, settling down behind the computer and starting some programs. 

"Yeah, didn't catch his last name though." Riley answered, looking at the computer screen.

"Oh well, maybe his folks were a bunch of hippies." Forrest said and typed in the name. After a few moments of searching Forrest gave up. "Nothing. No police records, no birth certificate, this guy isn't even registered."

"So I was right, he is a vampire!"

"Let's not jump to conclusions, I'll try to search some sites for info about him, find out what his story is."

"I don't care what his story is; I only care about where he is and how fast I can kill him to keep Buffy safe."

Forrest sighed and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you're not even sure if he's a vampire. I mean think, you said he was hanging out with Buffy and her friends, doesn't seem a little unvampirey to you?"

Riley sighed in defeat. "Fine, do that searching thing."

"Thanks for your permission." Forrest muttered sarcastically, and started searching the internet.

"This looks like some kind of demon search engine." Forrest said after a while, and typed in the name Angel. A short list appeared.

Riley looked at the list and snorted. "The Hell's Angels are demons, now why am I not surprised? Here try this one." He said, pointing at a link with the title _Angelus_. A small description appeared, including a drawing of Angelus.

"Is that him?" Forrest asked.

"Yeah, only with shorter hair. But what did I tell ya? Vampire. And reading his Bio, a pretty dangerous one at that. So why was he hanging out with those guys?"

"Says here that apparently he likes playing games with his victims, messing with their heads before killing them." Forrest said.

"So he pretends to be a nice regular Joe, befriending them, and then turn on them and go for the kill." Riley said, getting really angry and started to walk off.

"Where are you going?"

"To warn Buffy."

"You're not gonna tell her –"

"No, I'm not gonna tell her he's a vampire. But I have to say something. Because tonight we go after this guy."

* * *

"Wow." Buffy said, trying to control her breathing. 

"Wow." Angel agreed, panting just as much.

Buffy rolled on her side and laid her head on Angel's bare chest. "I never knew you could be so…wow."

"Yeah well, our first time I didn't want to go too far yet."

"Well this is certainly a great way to start the day. I could get used to this." Buffy smiled and lifts her head to kiss Angel tenderly.

"Me too." He smiled back.

Glancing at the clock, Buffy groaned. "Ugh, I gotta go, or I'm gonna be late for class."

"Can't you miss one class?" Angel said, smiling slyly and tracing patterns on her back with his fingers.

"Oh don't tempt me." Buffy's eyes fluttered shut at his touch, laying her head back on his chest. "I really can't." She sighed. "Professor Walsh won't let me back in if I miss one more class."

"Sounds pretty strict."

"She is." Buffy said, and reluctantly got up to get dressed, followed by Angel.  
When they reached the door they shared a dizzying kiss.

Buffy pulled back and smiled contently. "I'm glad you found an apartment so close to campus."

"See you later?"

"Tonight." They kissed once more and Buffy was out the door.

* * *

Walking out of class Buffy tried to go unnoticed by Riley, but no such luck, he right away walked up to her. It wasn't that she didn't want to talk to him, it was just…well, she didn't want to talk to him. 

"Hi Buffy, hey Willow." He greeted the girls.

"Hi." They both said.

"Uhm, can I talk to you alone?" He asked Buffy, and gave Willow a polite smile.

Buffy sighed. "I'll see you later okay?" She said to Willow and followed Riley to a quieter place in the hall. "What's up?"

"Okay uhm…how do I put this…it's about Angel."

"Angel? What about Angel?" Buffy asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"He's not who you think he is, he's…"

"What?" Buffy inwardly rolled her eyes. This was probably some kind of jealous crap.

"He's dangerous."

Buffy frowned. "Dangerous how?"

"Look, what do you know about him?"

"Everything."

"You sure? There's something about him Buffy."

Buffy was starting to get annoyed, and crossed her arms. "Like what."

"Well, first of all he's not registered. He has no history, I mean not a trace about him anywhere." As a human, he silently added.

"You've been looking into him?" Buffy exclaimed incredulously. "What gave you the right –"

"Look, all I'm saying is, you have to watch out with him, he's not who you think he is."

"I know exactly who he is." Buffy said, really getting mad.

"How? You've only known him, what, a couple of weeks maybe?" Riley asked, desperately trying to get through to her without revealing too much.

"I've known him for three years, we only recently got back together." She said coldly. "I'm leaving. Stay out of our lives." She stormed off, leaving an exasperated Riley behind.

* * *

Willow was staring at Buffy dumbfounded from across the table in the cafeteria, her yoghurt remaining untouched. "He looked up on Angel?" 

"He did, and he was warning me like Angel's some kind of killer or something."

"Well he sort of was, but," Buffy shot her a look. "but that's not the issue here. Why would he do that? I mean that's all weird, and stalkerish."

Buffy sighed. "I don't know, I think he was jealous or something…hey, now we're on the subject, Angel needs to get registered! I mean now that he's human he's gotta live like one, right?"

Willow nodded in agreement. "I guess he's gotta pay the price…literally, with taxes and stuff…"

"Hey girls!" Xander said cheerily as he grabbed a chair and sat down in between Buffy and Willow, receiving frowns from them as he stole Buffy's apple and took a big bite. "What?" He asked.

"Xander I thought you were working." Willow asked.

He smiled sheepishly. "Yeah well, I kinda got fired."

"Again? This is the third job this month!"

"Well I'd try harder if they were jobs I actually liked. It's not some great loss or anything." He said carelessly.

"Yeah but you still gotta pay rent right? So a job's kind of a necessary thing." Buffy said.

"I'll find a new one, no sweat. Or maybe _some_ sweat, depending on what kind of job it'll be. So what are we talking about?"

"Buffy has a stalker." Willow told him.

Xander shot Buffy a bewildered look. "What? Who?"

"Riley."

"Riley, the guy you thought you liked but now you've got Angel he's ancient history?"

"Exactly. Well, it's not so much stalking, I think. But there definitely are some stalker traits going on."

* * *

Angel was sitting on a bench in the park, enjoying the sight of the sunset, but most of al, as usual, brooding. He knew Buffy told him she was disgusted by Spike, and what happened with the spell. But he couldn't help but wonder if that was really t rue. What if she thought he was better? Or what if the spell had triggered something within her. Some small feeling of, lust, maybe for him?  
Shaking his head, he knew he trusted Buffy. But he was also worried about Spike, and whether he was telling the truth. This chip thing might be a trick or something.  
Deciding he was going to talk to Giles about it, he stood up and made his way to the Watcher's home.

"Just a minute!" Angel heard after he knocked on the door. He could already sense Spike's presence inside. The door opened, revealing Giles.

"Angel." He said, his voice surprised.

"Hi," He was about to continue when something behind Giles caught his eye. There, coming from the kitchen, was Spike, drinking blood from a mug and walking around freely. "You're letting him walk loose?" He asked incredulously.

Giles backed away to let Angel in and closed the door behind him. "Well erm, it seemed rather pointless to keep him tied up, since he can't harm anyone."

Spike smirked at him. "What's the matter Peaches, 'fraid I might go after the Slayer for something…other, than a fight?" He said, lifting his eyebrow suggestively.

Angel shot him a deadly glare, but turned back to Giles. "How do you know he's telling the truth about that chip?"

Giles sat down on a stool at the counter, rolling his eyes in annoyance at Spike who lay sprawled out on the couch, leaving no room for others. "Well, he's tried to attack Willow and he was incapable of biting her. Also, if he could actually hurt any of us, I think he would have attacked by now, instead of willingly staying here."

"Who said anything about willingly? I'd much rather go to some of my ol' chums if I didn't know they'd stake me for being the pathetic excuse for a vampire I am now." He said bitterly, and took a big swig from his blood.

"Who knows this isn't some plan of yours to kill us when we're not paying attention?" Angel shot at him.

"Oh come on, you know better than anyone I'm not exactly known for my patience, especially when it comes to killing. You should know after last time."

Giles rolled his eyes as the two kept arguing, and poured himself a glass of brandy, silently noting he was drinking more and more since Spike took in his residence here.

Angel turned around to face Giles. "Then if he's so harmless, why is he still here?"

"Because, he's…i-if he…he's defenseless and…" Giles sighed. "That's a bloody good question." He muttered.

"I know why." Spike said and jumped up with a big smug smirk on his face. He always loved getting a rise out of his Sire, and decided to have a bit more fun with him. "It's because of the Slayer – I mean, _Buffy_. Yeah, she says it's because you lot can't trust me enough to be out in the open yet, but you and I both know it's because she just wants another taste of good ol' Spike. That little preview caused by the Wicca just wasn't enough I s'pose."

"Shut up Spike." Angel spat, knowing he was just trying to get him mad, and it was working quite well.

"Ooh good one. Face it Angel, you're just not dangerous enough for the girl anymore. The Slayer needs someone who can compete with her, and that's not you."

That was it for Angel, and he punched Spike square in the face, sending him flying across the room. He looked surprised at his fist, not expecting there to be so much strength left in them.

"Alright, that's enough you two! If you're going to have at it do it outside! You're not going to trash my house fighting each other." Giles exclaimed, jumping up.

"Bloody hell." Spike mumbled as he checked his nose for blood and got up. "You always had quite the temper." He said with a chuckle, and suddenly jumped forwards, punching Angel towards the door. He was about to continue towards him when he stopped, realizing something. "Wait, I thought you were supposed to be human?" He asked.

Giles looked from Spike to Angel with the exact same question in mind.

"I am." Angel ground out as he got up.

"Then why can I hit you?" Spike asked confused.

"Your chip theory must not be as accurate as you claim."

Spike shook his head in denial. "No, I've tried enough times to know it's true." He turned to Giles and smacked him upside the head, receiving both an indignant "Ow!" from him, and a searing pain shooting through his head. He held his head in pain and glared at Angel. "Well well, guess you're not as human as you thought 'eh? And wait, also, I can hurt demons!" He said, suddenly excited. "Alright! It only works on humans, I'm not defenseless!"

Giles and Angel looked at him warily, Angel still trying to process the fact that he might not be entirely human.

"Well, it's been fun Rupert, but I think I'll be moving out now." He walked towards the door, shoved a dazed Angel aside, grabbed his duster and before Giles or Angel could protest he was out the door, intent on doing some damage to every demon that crossed his path.

* * *

"So when do we actually attack?" An impatient Riley asked, standing beside Forrest in the bushes by the house they saw Angelus enter after having followed him from the park. 

"I thought you were the coolheaded general guy? We wait for the back up to arrive, this vampire is probably extremely strong." Forrest said, rolling his eyes and sharing a knowing look with Graham, who stood behind him.

"Fine."

Then they saw the door opening, and a man with platinum blond hair swaggering out, looking overly confident. "Don't I know him from somewhere?" Riley asked.

"Probably from around campus." Graham said, shrugging it off. They heard some footsteps behind them, and the three of them turned around to greet their colleague soldiers.

"Finally." Riley muttered, and filled them in on the situation. "Okay, hold your tazers ready, and we're heading in." He said, and he signed for them all to follow as they sneaky walked up to the door.

They all burst in, quickly surrounding a startled looking Angel and Giles, holding their weapons ready.

* * *

**A/N: Sooooo, that's the end of this chapter! How thoughtful of me to keep y'all hanging like that huh? So, let me know what you all think of this chapter, please, review! I need it! I breathe on it! In fact, if I don't get reviews, I'll probably die. Not probably, it'll just happen. So if you will, let this poor little woman live by give her nice, long, reviews, which really don't have to contain sensible words! Okay…stopping with the begging now…See you around!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey all, I'm back! Thank you sooo much for your reviews! I guess more people were enjoying this story than I thought, so it was back to the salt mines for me…It took a while to write this chapter, because I was really kinda stuck,**** which I guess you knew because I almost decided to quit writing …I mean, I had _some_ ideas, but no idea how to write them and…well, I hope you guys don't think it sucks too much.**

**So without further ado, here's the (I think/hope) long awaited new chapter**

* * *

Buffy and Willow were slowly walking down the street, on their way to Giles' house. "I mean, it's not like I expected them to be there great powerful witches, but they could at least consider the idea of doing a spell, instead of laughing it right in the face." Willow rambled, once again on the subject of her wicca-group. "This one girl agreed with me, I think, but she was too shy to say something." She let out a deep sigh. 

"Well maybe you should talk to that girl, see if she's maybe a real witchy and, you know, make a new friend. It'll do ya…good…" Buffy trailed off when she reached Giles' house, and they saw a bunch of the commando guys storming in. With a glance at each other they ran towards the house, just in time to see them surrounding Angel and Giles, and one of them shooting Angel with a tazer gun. She quickly kicked that one down, and before the others really had time to process what happened she started taking the other commandos down.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Angel getting up, not yet unconscious from the blast, and starting to fight the soldiers as well. She punched the soldier she was fighting out, and turned around to help the others when she suddenly came face to face with none other than Riley Finn, holding his weapon ready.

They stared at each other in shock, until they snapped out of it by Willow yelling for Buffy. She turned to see what was wrong, and got another huge shock when she saw Angel, in full vamp mode, knocking the remaining soldiers out. "Angel." She whispered in shock.

* * *

After she finished dragging the last unconscious soldier outside, Buffy went inside to face an explanation of both Angel and Riley. She crossed her arms, looking between a tied up Riley and a distressed looking Angel on the couch. 

She walked to Riley, who was looking at her with a confused and wary expression in his eyes. "So you're on of the commando guys." She said coldly.

"How did you – Buffy, what's going on? Did you know he was a vampire?" Riley said, jerking his head to Angel.

"He's not a vampire. Or at least so I thought." She said, turning to Angel, who's face was back to it's normal human form.

"I don't know what happened, I was fighting and, suddenly I shifted. But my heart's still beating, and I don't need to drink blood…" He frowned, checking his pulse to make sure.

Giles took off his glasses and started cleaning them furiously. "Quite extraordinary." He mumbled, sharing a confused look with Willow.

"Who are all of you?" Riley asked, but he was ignored.

Buffy walked over to Angel, and felt his heartbeat, still going strong, and his hands were also still warm. "Okay, so you're still alive…how could you still be able to shift to vampface? Giles, an explanation might be helpful." She said, turning to face Giles and sat down next to Angel on the couch.

"Well, er, he's obviously…s-some thing, must've happened to ehm…" He trailed off, racking his brain to find some logic in all this.

"Ooh! I've got it!" Willow exclaimed. "He's a human vampire!"

"Way to state the obvious." Buffy deadpanned with a frown.

"Well I don't know…" Willow mumbled quietly.

"If you'd let me bring him to the lab, do some tests, we could find out what he is…" Riley said, hoping to still get something out of this failed operation.

"Yeah, and cut him open to see the insides. Sure, very helpful." Buffy said sarcastically.

"So I'm guessing research party?" Willow asked.

"Well yes, I believe research is in order."

"Ooh should we call Xander? It could be like old times!" Willow said happily, but upon seeing Buffy's stern face her smile melted away. "Excuse me for seeing the bright side."

"Well until we know Angel won't go back to being a full vampire there is no bright side. But call Xander, we're gonna need all the help we can get."

"I could call Doyle, have him look into some books about the Mohra demon." Angel suggested.

Buffy nodded. "Yeah do that." And they all got up to get books or to make phone calls, leaving Riley still in the dark about the situation.

* * *

They'd been researching for a few hours now, and still nothing had come up. Some books mention the Mohra demon, but nothing about its regenerating blood.  
Buffy sighed and put yet another book down. "Anything?" She asked the room, but they all shook their heads. She sighed once more, concern evident in her featured. She wondered when she was ever going to get a break? After she discovered Angel was human she was so happy, she thought she finally could have the normal, or semi-normal life with him she always wanted. But now there was a chance he was going to turn back to a vampire, and she didn't think she could handle that. 

"I'll try calling Doyle again, there was no answer when…" He trailed off, his still in tact vampiric hearing picked up a familiar voice coming from outside.

"What?" Buffy asked, but Angel didn't answer and got up and opened the door.

"Well we wouldn't have taken this long to get here if you hadn't taken that wrong turn!" Cordelia snapped at Doyle, but then gave him a peck on the cheek anyway. It was then that Doyle noticed Angel standing in the doorway looking at them strangely.

"Hey man." He said cheerily.

"Doyle, and..Cordy…uh, what are you guys doing here?"

"Well after your call we decided a little vacation would do us good, so here we are!"

"And in which alternate universe a trip back to Sunnyhell is called a vacation I don't know." Cordy said sarcastically.

"Oh well uh, come in." Angel said, still a little confused.

They followed Angel insde. "Hello Sunnydale." Cordy said, looking at the familiar faces, and one new one.

"Cordy." Xander said shocked, "hi!" He got up, and Cordy was about to hug him when Anya quickly jumped up.

"You can't have him!" She exclaimed.

Cordelia raised an eyebrow at her. "Oookay. Hey, Anya right? You two are together now?" She asked Xander.

"Yeah, she's my feisty little ex-vengeance demon." He said and put his arm around Anya's shoulder while smiling apologetically at Cordelia for her behavior.

Cordelia smiled back. "Well good to see you." She said, and went to greet Willow.

After everyone greeted each other, introductions for Doyle were made and they promised to explain the two why Riley was tied up in a chair, they went down to business. "So did you find anything useful, coz we've been hitting the books and racking our brains for hours with now luck." Buffy said.

"Well, we brought that book in which the Mohra's described and all, but I think I sorta figured it out. See, the Mohra demon's blood regenerates, it's reviving and all that. So when Angel's blood got mixed with it, that's exactly what it did; it made him alive and his organs working. But that doesn't mean it made him human, it just made him mortal. So the strength and vampire exterior remained in tact. Way I see it, he's a vampire with a few perks, such as mortality, a pulse and no more sun allergy." Doyle explained as though it all made perfect sense.

They all stared at him. "Of course." Giles muttered. "It's so obvious, why hadn't I seen it?"

"Hey, you're the G-man, all you do is think of complicated explanations like prophecies and doom scenario's." Xander quipped, popping a chip in his mouth, happy that research time was over.

"You know you could've just told us this over the phone." Angel said quietly, still processing this new info. He was now half vampire, half human…At least this meant he could stay with Buffy, without the danger of losing his soul or burning in day light. That's really all that mattered, and honestly, he was kinda happy to still have his strength.

"Sure, but then I wouldn't have got to meet all the nice people you kept not talking about." Doyle said with a grin at Angel.

"Okay, now we got the boring stuff out of the way, could somebody explain to me why that guy is tied up?" Cordelia asked.

Buffy stood up, crossing her arms as she eyed Riley. "We think he might be evil."

Riley sighed. "I'm not evil."

"Really, then tell me what it is you commando guys do."

"I can't tell you, that's classified."

Buffy, along with pretty much the rest of the room, rolled her eyes. "Okay, then let me. You're part of some military monster squad that captures - demons, vampires, probably have some official sounding euphemisms for them, like unfriendlies or non sapiens."

"Hostile Sub Terrestrials." Riley said with a nod.

Buffy nodded in confirmation. "So you deliver these – HST's to a bunch of lab coats, who perform experiments on them, which among other things turn some into harmless little bunnies. How am I doing so far?"

"A little too well." Riley frowned, wondering how she knew all this.

"Meanwhile by day you pretend to be Riley Finn, corn-fed Iowa boy. Ever been to Iowa, Riley? God, if that's even your name."

"It is, born and raised. And hey! Bulletin: I'm not the only one who's been a little less than honest here. I mean, you with like super strength or something, and your friends…and your vampire – or, half vampire boyfriend! Who – or what are you?"

Buffy sighed and sat down on the arm of the couch. "I thought a professional demon chaser like yourself would have figured it out by now…I'm the Slayer."

Riley looked at her blankly.

Buffy raised her eyebrows. "Slay-er? Chosen One." Riley still looked lost. "She who hangs out a lot in cemeteries? - You're kidding." She stood up. "Ask around. Look it up: Slayer comma the."

"Surely you've heard of the Slayer?" Giles asked, frowning at Riley with crossed arms. He didn't like this boy one bit. He figured he fought on their side, but he had this goody-two-shoes look that the Ripper in him just couldn't stand.

"Well, no…Should I have?"

"Well I should say so, the Slayer, erh, Buffy, is a well known and feared warrior in the demon world."

"Yeah and not just 'coz of her fighting skills, her choice in clothing is also –"

"-Cordy now is not really the time." Doyle quietly interrupted, placing his hand on the small of her back, which did not go unnoticed by Angel.

"Who are all you people anyway? I mean, do you have any special skills?"

Willow raised her hand. "Witch." She said.

"I'm Buffy's Watcher." Giles said.

"Half-Demon…Oh, and I also got visions."

"Really? That's quite interesting, so you're the friend Angel was talking about on thanksgiving." Giles said, more interested in Doyle now than Riley.

Doyle looked a little uneasy with everyone looking at him, and was relieved when the inquisitive Riley talked again. "So you all help with stuff…what about you three?" He asked, nodding in Cordy, Xander and Anya's direction.

"Well, she's an ex-vengeance demon, and me and Cordy offer moral support and tension relief with funny quips."

Anya elbowed him in the ribs, causing Xander to wince and pretend to not be hurt. "Xander! How could you! Now they're gonna slice me all open and take out my entrails!"

"Well honey I'm sure Riley understands we're all do-gooders here and they won't try to take any of us…Besides if they did, Buffy would kick their asses." Xander said with a reassuring pat on her knee.

"So you do good, fight demons an all?" They all nodded. "Then why are you hanging out with a vampire?"

"Angel has a soul." Buffy stated.

"Really, a soul? And now he's a half vampire. I'm sure Walsh would love to do some tests and-"

"No! There will be no tests." Buffy interrupted.

"Wait, what does professor Walsh have to do with this?" Willow asked confused.

Riley inwardly smacked his head. "You weren't supposed to know this…Professor Walsh is the operator of the Initiative."

Willow stared at him, not believing her psych teacher was involved in this. "What?"

* * *

Riley descended the stairs that lead to the Initiative underground and walked right into Maggie Walsh. "Agent Finn. Glad to see you've finally returned. What kept you?" 

"I was uh…" He was about to say everything he found out, about all the demons Buffy was working with, but he stopped himself. He saw that they were all on the side of good, and he wasn't going to jeopardize them by letting Walsh and the team loose on them. Besides, he liked Buffy, and if he was ever going to stand a chance with her, vampire boyfriend aside, it would be smart to keep his mouth shut. However, he knew Professor Walsh would know about the Slayer, and she'd think her a powerful ally.

"You went on a mission without my permission, taking all our best men with you. Then all of them return battered, having obviously failed in your mission, and now you'd better come with a good explanation." Walsh said and crossed her arms.

Riley searched his brains, trying to come up with a good explanation – or lie – that would get him out of trouble. "I had seen hostile 17 lurking around, and me and the team were tracking him down when the Slayer appeared. She thought we were HST's, so she attacked, knocking all the men out. But she recognized me, so I had to explain to her."

"The Slayer, really?" Walsh asked. "You said she recognized you, who is she?"

"Buffy Summers."

* * *

After they released Riley, convinced that he wasn't actually evil, everyone had stayed for a little while. But as it got late, pretty much everyone went home. Giles said he still wanted to do a little research about the Mohra, even though he believed that Doyle's explanation was right. 

Buffy was walking next to Cordelia, on their way to Angel's apartment, trying to pay attention to Cordy's never ending rant about how inconsiderate it was of her and Angel to just get back together like that when she'd just found a steady job in Angel Investigations. But she just couldn't stay focused, she kept thinking about Angel, and how she'd almost lost him again. She was so relieved to find out he was still somewhat human. It was probably better that he still had his vampire strength, so he could fight for himself.

A little behind the two women, Angel and Doyle walked side by side. Angel glanced at Doyle, who was looking at Cordelia. "When did you and Cordy get together?" He asked suddenly.

Doyle jumped a little. "What?" He didn't really hear what Angel said, he was too engrossed in watching Cordy walk.

"You and Cordy, what happened?"

"Oh man, funny story that." He laughed a little embarrassed. "See, a little while after you left, I kinda thought I was dying."

Angel frowned. "Huh?"

"Yeah you see, I felt kinda queasy, to say the least. So you know, as my last famous words to Cordy I told her everything. About how I felt about her, about me being a half demon…and then I kinda kissed her."

Angel merely raised his eyebrows.

"But then…turns out, I wasn't exactly dying. It was the powers, releasing me of that little vision thing I had going."

"Really? So you don't get visions anymore?"

"Nope, I'm all headburst free now. So anyway, I was pretty much wishing the ground would swallow me whole, but then Cordy said she felt something for me too, so…there ya have it." Doyle finished happily.

"That's great, I'm happy for you two. So what are you gonna do now?"

"Oh you mean now that I don't work for the PTB anymore? Well I figure, maybe I could you know…move here maybe? Be a nice change of scenery, and it would get me away from that new hero guy the powers called to watch over LA. I didn't like him that much. But I don't think Cordy would like to come back here."

"You have no idea how much I miss this place!" Cordy exclaimed.

"Really." Buffy said absentmindedly.

"Really! I mean, at first I was like, get me the hell away from this dump! But LA isn't as much as it seems. It has the stores, the way cooler people, but it doesn't really feel like home. Besides, now that Angel's gone, I don't have a job anymore, which is kinda necessary for keeping my apartment. My dad told me he and mom might be moving out, and he said that if so, he's gonna keep the house in case I would like to use it. But I don't know, I'm not sure Doyle'd move here too, and I kinda don't wanna miss him." She was actually more talking to herself than to Buffy, but that didn't stop her from talking on and on. The truth was, she also missed Buffy, Giles, Willow and even Xander. She kinda wondered where Oz was though…"Hey where's Oz? He wasn't at Giles', aren't he and Willow, like, attached to the hip?"

Buffy broke out of her thoughts long enough to hear Cordelia's question about Oz. "He left. He and Willow broke up."

"Oh…that's too bad, I really liked him."

"Yeah me too."

**

* * *

Okay, I hope you weren't all too disappointed with this chapter.  
I want to ask you guys a question: see, I have a lot of ideas for what I want to do with this story, but all the stuff I came up with doesn't start until season 5, and right now I'm only halfway in season 4. I was thinking I'd maybe do a big time leap to the part I want to write, or otherwise cover a few episodes shortly of the Angelized Buffy season 4. But I don't know, it might become kind of long, seeing as my ideas go all the way up to the end of season 7 and beyond…I could also just do a sequel…but I don't really like sequels, I like long stories more…So please, tell me your opinion of all this I confusingly laid out for you! **


	5. Chapter 5

**Howdy people! Wow it's been a while! Must remind myself to write more often. Damn, I started on two, possibly three other Buffy stories…perhaps I should work on this one more before I do that…but oh well, too late. But I won't be updating those until they're finished otherwise it'll only lead to slow updating, like with this story…**

**Disclaimer: Unnecessary. Don't. Own. A. Bloody. THING!**

**Well, here ya go folks, chapter Five. Hope it doesn't suck! **

* * *

With a relieved sigh Buffy lay herself down on her bed. The last two weeks had definitely been tiring. First there was that thing where their voices were stolen and they couldn't talk. Riley had tried to kiss her then, which she thought was kinda stupid considering he knew she was seriously involved with a half-vampire guy. Of course, he was reminded of that when Angel had almost hit him, if she hadn't stopped him in time. 

Almost right after that, there was that non-apocalypse thing. Those were always tiresome.

And to top that all off, tomorrow was her birthday. That was never a good sign, seeing as her birthday always ended in a disaster.

She sighed deeply, and turned to look at Willow, who was still busy highlighting a text in her book. "Will?" She asked.

"Yeah?" Willow asked as she looked up from her book.

"Just to make sure, there will be no party tomorrow or anything, right? I mean, Buffy birthday parties always tend to go bad."

"Oh no, no party whatsoever, no, no party. Definitely not. Just you, me, Xander…Giles and Angel…and maybe your mom. And Xander'll probably bring Anya…"

"Will, that's already too many people! I mean, it's all the people I want there, but there's no _there_ there, since there won't be anything to be..there…at." She frowned at her words not making sense.

"No, I swear Buffy, there will be no party! We'll probably just drop by, dump presents on your bed, mumble a quick "happy birthday" and, make ourselves scarce." Willow said with a big smile, hoping she was covering up well enough for the big surprise party she and Xander planned for tomorrow evening. They knew Buffy said she didn't want a party, but just because she had a few bad experiences with her birthday, didn't mean it always had to go bad, right? And besides, she deserved a little fun once in a while.

"Say, speaking of Angel, how are things between you two lately? We haven't really, you know, talked since that whole half vampire, half human fiasco…You guys still good?"

"Of course!" Buffy said happily, the former topic completely forgotten. "I mean, when he went al vamp-facey I was so afraid things were gonna go back to the way they were before he became "human", but now…To tell ya the truth, I'm actually kind of glad he isn't entirely human. I mean, way I see it, he has all the plus sides of both human and vampire in him, so there's no bad, right? We still get to stay together, and he can still go outside, but he has that whole vampire-strength package to go with it."

"So, do you think you might wanna…move in with him or something?" Willow asked a little fearful. Sure she was happy for her friend, but call her selfish, but she just wasn't prepared to sacrifice all her time with Buffy to Angel. They already saw each other so little, since Buffy was always at Angel's place.

Buffy looked a little surprised. "Oh, well, uh I haven't really thought about it…Well okay, I have done the occasional dreaming of pretty weddings and a house with white picket fences and a dog in the front yard, but I don't know, we haven't talked about it or anything…Besides, I don't think moving in with him would be the best idea right now, what with college and all…"

"Oh good." Willow sighed in relief. "Coz, honestly? I kinda miss you. I mean you're always away and we don't really talk anymore…I mean, I'm not alone or anything, I started hanging out with this girl from wicca group, Tara, who I think you should meet by the way. Maybe I can bring her to your birthday par – uh, a-after your birthday on which will be _no _party. But still, you're at Angel's apartment a lot…hey, while we're on the subject, how _is_ Angel able to afford that anyway, I mean, he doesn't work…does he?"

"Huh?" Buffy frowned at the sudden change of topic. "Oh no, he doesn't. I don't really know…I guess I always figured he must have a lot of money saved up from living for 250 years. But I think maybe he's gonna get a job, now that we got him all ID'd last week."

"Yeah, I mean he might get bored. What did he do for all those years anyway, read? Somehow he doesn't strike me as the TV type."

"Nah…Oh but hey, I totally wanna meet your friend. She sounds nice."

Willow's eyes lit up, which didn't go unnoticed by Buffy. "Oh yeah, she's totally nice. A little shy though, but she's a really good at spells and stuff. I think you'll really like her."

* * *

Buffy sighed in relief as she entered the dorm room the next evening. Her birthday was almost over, and she had managed to get through it without arms in boxes or deflating Slayer strength. Of course she knew she was jinxing the hell out of herself, but it couldn't do much harm if she was gonna stay in for the rest of the evening, right? 

There was a knock on the door, and Buffy went to answer. "Angel." She smiled and he stepped in.

"Hi." He said as she closed the door and grabbed her for a passionate kiss.

She reached behind her and turned the light off, leaving the place only lighted by the lamp on her nightstand. Then she turned on a soft tune on her stereo and turned slightly to look at Angel with a sly smile.  
He started walking over to her when she grabbed him suddenly and gently pushed him on her bed. With a smile he looked up to her as she straddled him and bent down to kiss him.

He put his hands on her back and started working up her shirt. "We're not expecting anyone, are we?" He asked in between heated kisses.

"Willow said she was gonna be at the science library all night." Buffy said with a grin when she pulled back slightly. She started to unbutton Angel's blouse.

"Is that right?" He asked with a smirk. She leaned down again to kiss him some more.

Just then Willow barged into the room, looking distressed.

"Uh, apparently not." Buffy grumbled as she got off Angel's lap, straightening her shirt, and he sat up on the bad.

"We got trouble." Willow said, slightly out of breath.

"What is it?" Buffy asked seriously.

"I was in the rec room, it came through the window."

"Vampires?" Angel asked.

"Vampires don't breathe fire."

* * *

Buffy and Angel ran quickly after Willow. Buffy was clearing annoyed with the disruption of her night with Angel. She knew she shouldn't have jinxed herself. "We have to make this fast, I have better things to do tonight than kill." She said as she grabbed a stake from her bag. 

They went into the rec room, where it was completely dark. Buffy looked around unsurely, when suddenly the lights jumped on, and a whole bunch of people jumped up, yelling "Surprise!"

She looked in shock at all her friends from school and of course all the scoobies, and the room decorated with balloons and a big birthday banner.

"Guess you won't be killing anything tonight after all." Willow said with a big grin.

"Don't be so sure." Buffy said with a sly grin, then suddenly looked sternly at her best friend. "I thought I specifically told you, no party!"

Willows looked like a dear caught between headlights. "Oh, well uh, I thought, you know…it was Angel's idea!" She sputtered out hastily, and pointed a guilty finger at Angel.

Buffy eyed him suspiciously. "Was it really?"

"Well, not _really_, but If you're happy about it I'm willing to take the full blame." He said with a grin. He bent down and kissed her. "Happy birthday, Buffy." He whispered and she grinned back, suddenly happy her friends threw her a party after all. Then they all joined in with the 'happy birthday' wishing.

"See, that's what I like about Angel. He's always willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good." Xander said to Willow with a mouth full of chips, happy he wasn't gonna get in trouble for throwing Buffy a party against her own will.

After all the presents were given, Angel took her apart for his gift.  
"I have two things for you." He said. He got a velvet box from his pocket and gave it to Buffy.

She glanced at him with a bright smile and opened the box, revealing a silver necklace with a green pendant. "It's beautiful." She said awed.

"Turn it over." Angel said softly.

She complied, and saw that at the back of the pendant the words "eternally yours" were engraved. Now if this would have come from any other person than Angel, it would've been sappy. But somehow Angel managed to make it true and really romantic. She smiled and kissed him sweetly. "Thank you." She said. "Put it on?" She held out the necklace and turned around, holding up her hair. Angel put on the necklace and planted a kiss on the nape of her neck before she turned back around.

"Now I believe you said 'two things'?" She asked coyly.

He smiled at her and got another item from his pocket. "Angel…" She gasped when she saw what it was. It was a Claddagh ring. _The_ Claddagh ring, in fact.

"I found it at the mansion when I came back and held on to it. I never got the chance to give it to you, so…"

Buffy smile with tears in her eyes. She held out her left hand and Angel put on her ring finger, where it once used to be, the heart pointing towards her. She admired it for a moment, beyond touched. "Do you still have yours?" She asked. He held up his own left hand to show the ring on his finger. Buffy looked at him and took his hand and gave the ring a kiss, just like on that other night. Then she took his head between her hands and kissed him passionately. "I love you." She said.

"I love you."

From across the room Riley watched the couple with raging jealousy. _He_ was the one who was supposed to be with her right now. They were headed in the direction, before that vampire guy came in and ruined it all. But he was convinced he still had a shot with her. That's why he was happy Willow accidentally invited him to her party. Now he had a chance to tell her that Walsh wanted to see her. If she came involved with the Initiative, she would be spending more time with him, and less time with the intruder. Slowly he'd be able to win her heart.

* * *

Buffy put her drink on the table. When she turned around she was greeted by the bright smiling face of Willow and some shy looking blonde girl. 

"Hi Buffy! This, is Tara." She said happily, and gestured at the girl beside her. "She's the girl in my wicca group, and she's a really good witch!"

"Not really." Tara said with a shy smile, ducking her head a little.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Buffy." She said, liking the girl right away. She had such a sweet smile.

"W - Willow's told me a lot about you."

"Yeah?"

Tara was about to reply when Riley appeared beside Buffy. "Hi Buffy." He said.

"Oh, Riley, hi." She said not all too enthusiastically.

"Uh, you got a minute? There's something I need to run by you." He said, glancing at Willow and Tara.

"Oh, sure I guess." She turned to Tara. "It was really nice meeting you."

"Y-you too. Happy birthday." She said, and Buffy smiled brightly at her before following Riley to a quieter place in the room.

"Happy birthday Buffy." He said to her, smiling his sweetest smile.

Inwardly she rolled her eyes at him. "Thank you. So what's up?" After last week's Gentlemen attack he more or less proved he wasn't evil. Especially when he helped her at the not-so-much-apocalypse. But she still didn't trust the Initiative completely. She knew Riley was on the side of good though.

"I talked to professor Walsh, and she wanted to see you."

Buffy looked suddenly alarmed. "Why? Am I in trouble? Was it that test last Thursday? Coz, I meant to study, but –" She rambled, before Riley laughingly interrupted.

"-No, I mean about more…slayery issues." He said.

"Oh! Coz she's head of that whole operation thing you got going, right. So you told her 'bout me being the Slayer?" She asked, silently begging he didn't tell her about Angel too.

"Yes, I had to. Don't worry, I only told her about you, not the others." He said, seeing the slightly alarmed look in her eyes.

"Good. Thanks. So uh, what does she want to talk to me about?"

"I'm not exactly sure. All she said was that she wanted to see you tomorrow. But I don't think you'll have to worry."

"Oh…okay." Buffy said, a little confused. "So, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Seems to turn out that way. Bye Buffy." Riley said in what he hoped was a mysterious and flirtatious way, and left.

"What was that all about?" Angel asked from behind her. She quickly turned around, a little startled.

"I'm not sure. He said professor Walsh wants to talk to me about Initiative stuff."

"Why?"

Buffy shrugged. "I don't know."

* * *

She was walking outside campus next to Riley, having just met with Walsh. She didn't know how to feel about being admitted to the Initiative team. Would this mean she'd have to fight with strange weapons and go along with military missions? It sounded kinda cool. 

She glanced at Riley and snickered inwardly. 17 demons killed, ha! The look on their faces when she told them she slayed about 3 vampires a night since she was fifteen had just been priceless. She sort of enjoyed bragging about her slayed opponents.

"I'm not even sure _I_ could take you." Riley said, finishing up a line she hadn't really heard.

She turned to him. "Maybe we should find out?" She said, looking forward to kicking his Teutonic ass. He _so_ thought she was weak just because she was a girl! Stupid…sexist.

"What?" Riley asked.

"Come on! Let's spar and see if you _can_ take me."

"Mind if I join you?" Angel asked, coming to stand next to her and Riley. Buffy just grinned at him; this was going to be fun!

* * *

Angel watched from the side as Buffy and Riley circled around each other in the school gym. He couldn't wait to see him getting pummeled by Buffy. That stupid boy was grinning like and idiot as the two of them threw half hearted punches at each other. What, did he think he could actually take on the Slayer? 

"Are you holding back?" Riley asked her playfully.

"Are you?"

"Maybe a little." He said as he threw a weak punch at her, missing her by a long shot.

Buffy hooked her foot behind his leg and pulled him to the ground. She smiled down at him. "Maybe a little too."

He smiled and kicked himself to his feet, and they began to circle each other again. "I'll go all out if you will."

"Are you sure?" Buffy asked. Yeah right, if she'd go all out she'd kill him!

"Here we go." Riley said and they started sparring seriously. Or rather, he was serious, she was trying not to hurt him too much. She blocked and avoided all his punches and finally hit him with a sideways kick that sent him flying across the room, a large mat falling on top of him.

Buffy and Angel secretly shared a small grin before she hurried up to Riley to pull the mat away. "Are you okay?" She asked as he was clutching his chest, which obviously hurt.

He cleared his throat a little. "Uh, yeah I think so." He gazed up at her. She was strong! Stronger than him even. If he couldn't fight her, he probably could _not_ fight her boyfriend. He was a vampire. Okay, half vampire, but still, he was even stronger than normal vampires, probably stronger than Buffy.

Angel grinned and stepped forward. "Let the boy rest, Buffy, and come here to show me some real fighting."

Buffy turned around, matching his grin. Now this was much more interesting than sparring with Riley. At least Angel could match her strength. "Think you can take me?" She asked playfully.

"We'll see." And they got into fighting positions. This would be a full match, no holding back whatsoever, the could both feel it.

"Buffy, are you sure you wanna do that? He's got vampire strength, remember? I mean we'd need a whole team to take someone like him down." Riley said warningly.

Buffy just rolled her eyes at Angel. "Don't worry, I got it." And they were off. They threw punches, ducked, kicked and blocked as they would in any serious battle. They were showing off to Riley, and they both knew it. And all he could do was stare as Buffy finally landed straddled on top of Angel, holding a stake (God knows where she got it from) over his heart, winning the battle.

They were both so powerful, he was _never_ going to match up to her as a mere human. She was _so_ unbelievably strong…he sorta liked it.

* * *

"That was fun." Buffy said as she and Angel were walking towards his apartment. "We should to that more often – just the two of us, I mean." 

Angel put his arm around her and kissed her cheek. "Yeah, we should."  
They walked on in silence until they reach the apartment. "So what did professor Walsh want to talk to you about?" He then asked as they entered.

"Hm? Oh, just stuff like, 'we thought you were a myth, blablabla, you're being admitted to the team, blabla' and then she started bragging about how many demons Riley had killed. 17! She looked so proud, and I almost couldn't contain myself from laughing in their faces." She said cheerily, and put her arms around Angel's waist, leaning in to kiss him.

But Angel backed away slightly. "They want you to become part of their operation?" He asked, feeling this was a little suspicious.

"I guess. She said something about working on giving me clearance to their lab-thing, so, yeah."

He turned away slightly, looking pensive. "What is it?" She asked.

"I'm just not sure you can trust those people."

"I know. I just figured, if they trust _me_, I can do a little exploring down there. Check out if they're really on our side, what exactly they're up to…that sort of thing."

"Just be careful, alright?"

"I will." Buffy said reassuringly and put her arms around him again. "Now, where were we?" He leaned in and kissed her. "Oh yeah," She started to kiss a trail down to his neck. "right here." She said and slowly pulled him towards the bedroom.

**

* * *

End chapter five…few, my hands cramp from typing…**

**I won't make any promises about when I'm gonna update, because it'll only lead to disappointment. And disappointment, leads to fear. Fear leads to Anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to anger. No wait, hold on. Fear leads to hate, hate leads to the dark sinde. Hold on, no. Uhm. First you get the women, then you get the money, then you…okay, can we forget that?  
Ahem, yeah, I sort of have a tendency to turn stuff I say into a Buffy quote…my deepest most humble apologies.**

**Please review! I need reviews! They're my life! In fact, they're my life_savers_, because without reviews, one cannot live!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Howdy people! I'm back, and have great news! Not only have I written a new chapter, I also have _re_written chapter one! Okay, it's not a total rewrite since most of the stuff is the same as it was before with minor adjustments, but I made it a lot less with just stuff from the actual episode, and more my own stuff. I'm also going to rewrite chapter two, but that'll just take a while longer…anyway, hope ya like!**

**Disclaimer: Nothing is of the ownage in the me-department…  
Oh yeah, I used some lines from the episodes _Goodbye Iowa_ and _This Year's Girl_.**

* * *

"Are you sure about this?" Angel asked. He and Buffy stood at the door, Buffy about to leave for some test she had to take before she was being initiated into the Initiative. 

"Yes, don't worry. I'll be fine." She kissed him goodbye, and took off, secretly feeling a little excited to see what the Initiative was like. Riley had made it sound like it was this giant anti-demon central and she was sorta looking forward to it.

As soon as Buffy was gone, Angel took his coat and left the apartment too.

Walking around Restfield cemetery, he knew it had to be somewhere. He sniffed the air, straight away picking up the scent, and followed its trail.

He opened the door to the crypt. The place was dark, lighted slightly by the sunlight coming through two grimy windows on the right wall. In the corner stood a lazy chair and an old TV. "Spike?" He called out.

"What are you doin' here Angelus?" Spike asked casually as he appeared from the shadowy corner of the room. "I thought I made it clear to the Watcher-boy I didn't want nothin' to do with you lot anymore." He said as he stepped closer to Angel.

"Yeah well, I'm not much for taking orders."

"Right, enough chitchat. What do you want?" Spike asked, lit up a cigarette and inhaled deeply.

"You've been inside the Initiative, so you know what it was like. What was going on down there?"

Spike snorted, still pissed off about those commando guys. "Bunch of prancies with clipboards draggin' y'off through white halls with electric glass windows holdin' the demons caged. Y'know they drug you and then do these nasty experiments on you. 's how I got this bloody chip." He ranted as he paced through the crypt.

"So they experiment on demons, why?"

"Don' know. Probably tryin' to find out the best way to kill 'em. Or rehabilitate 'em into society. That sort of thing."

"So basically they're on our side?"

"I s'pose." Spike another drag from his cigarette while eyeing Angel. "Why are you here askin' all these sorts o' questions? You thinkin' of joinin' the team yourself?" He asked mockingly.

Angel rolled his eyes. "Nice talking to you Spike." And he turned to leave.

"Anytime Peaches." He replied sarcastically and went over to his chair. "Stupid git." He muttered after the door had closed behind Angel. He scolded himself for just straightforwardly telling him that stuff without hesitation. No matter how much he hated his Grandsire, part of him had this tiny twinge of respect, or family honouring or what not. He sighed. Bugger that. Dru had been right, he really was getting soft. And it had absolutely _nothing_ to do with the Slayer, as she had said!

* * *

Angel arrived at Buffy's dorm the next evening and knocked on the door. "Hey Willow, is Buffy there?" He asked when Willow answered the door. 

"Uh, no, you just missed her. She got beeped by the Initiative-guys." She added, rolling her eyes, and she stepped aside.

"I take it you don't like them either?" He said as he entered the room.

"I don't know, there's just something about that whole thing that's just…a-and she's all like, 'oh look, they gave me a beeper', and, 'Maggie Walsh is soo smart', Giles is just as smart! Maybe smarter! And earlier tonight, we were gonna be at the Bronze with, you know, just the three of us. But then she shows up, late, with all those army guys! I mean I could've-"

"Willow!" Angel interrupted her rant, even though he would really like to hear what Buffy was doing there with a whole bunch of guys. Maybe this Initiative thing was an even worse idea than he thought. Not that he didn't trust Buffy…He just didn't trust that one guy, Riley. He seemed to really be interested in Buffy.

She smiled sheepishly at him. "Sorry. It's just that, I hardly see her anymore, and now with this new thing…"

"Sorry. Guess part of that is because of me."

"Oh, no! You two totally deserve to be spending, time, coz, you know, you guys had it hard. Believe me, you are completely blame free."

Angel smiled a bit. "Thanks. But I just came over, because she said she'd come back to my place after she went to the Initiative, but she never showed so…Just ask her to call when she gets back, okay?" He said as he went to the door to leave.

"Sure. Bye Angel."

* * *

Buffy slowly woke up the next morning – or, almost noon. Her first time out with the army team had gone well…she thought. Well, they managed to capture the demon. It just felt a little strange to her that they weren't supposed to kill it. She had asked Riley about 314 though, but he hadn't known anything about it…Oh well, she'd figure it out. Probably. 

She groaned, and looked over at Willow's bed. It was undisturbed, and no Willow. She frowned, and just then Willow entered the room.

"Oh hi." She said not too enthused.

"Hey." Buffy said as she got out of bed, still sounding a bit sleepy. "Out all night, huh?" She asked, indicating the neatly made-up bed.

"Oh, yeah. I was doing, uh, spells with Tara." She said and put her bag on the bed.

Buffy regarded her for a few moments before she started to get dressed. "Listen, I'm sorry about bailing on you guys at the Bronze." She said as she started brushing her hair.

"That's okay…" She said, but she didn't really sound convincing. "Angel stopped by. He said you bailed on him the other night, too."

Buffy made big eyes. "Oh! Oops! Was he really mad?" She sighed deeply. "I'm sorry. I guess I've been a little preoccupied with the Initiative stuff. It's kind of a big deal for me, I guess." She said, just as her beeper went off.

"I can see that." Willow said, clearly annoyed. "They really keep ya hopping, don't they?"

"Yeah. I gotta go." And she was off once again.

* * *

Buffy gravely walked towards Giles' apartment, clutching the defected taser rifle. So apparently the Initiative _wasn't_ on their side. Or at least, Maggie Walsh sure wasn't. 

"Buffy." She looked up and saw Angel walking towards her. "I've been looking for you."

She tried to smile, but it didn't really work. "Hey Angel."

"What happened?" He asked when he saw the gun in her hand and the stumped expression on her face.

She sighed. "Let's get inside, I'll explain." She opened the door to the apartment in time to hear Giles' last words.

"-As long as the Initiative is in operation it's not safe for you here."

"No." Buffy said. "It's not safe for any of us." She came further into the room, followed by Angel, who inwardly frowned at Spike being here.

"What do you mean?" Willow asked.

"I got beeped for what was said was a 'third class' mission. I get some techno stuff to track down what was probably just a racoon. Or so they said. So Maggie sends me down into the sewers with one of those blasto guns and the next thing I know it's raining monsters." She said and put the gun down on a table.

"Hallelujah." Xander said jokingly, thinking about that song.

"And then this gate slams down behind me, and I-I try to use the gun but it goes pfft." Buffy continued.

"You're saying that Maggie Walsh set you up?" Giles asked.

"That's exactly what I'm saying. She sent me on a one way recon."

* * *

They all ended up hiding for the Initiative at Xander's basement room. Except Spike, who took off when Riley came in and recognized him as Hostile 17. A lot of bad stuff happened after that; Maggie got killed, Riley went a little insane, but the worst one of all was Adam. The Frankenstein looking demon had barely blinked when Buffy tried to fight him. 

But to top all of that off, they had a new problem to deal with. Just last night, the hospital had called to say that Faith was awake.

"Any luck finding her?" Willow asked as she and Buffy were walking across campus on the main walkway.

"No. I tried her old apartment and the mayor's office, but she wasn't there." Buffy said, reporting last night's Faith-hunt. "Angel said I should try talking to her, coz she's probably disoriented and stuff…but I don't know, last time that didn't exactly end so well."

"Yeah because she's insane." Willow wasn't exactly Faith's biggest fan, and proud of it too! "But hey, at least you're not alone in this. I bet every cop in Sunnydale is out there looking for her, right now." She said as they descended the stairs towards the large bulletin board.

"Pressure is definitely high. I tell you, if I were her I'd get out Dodge post-hasty."

At the board, amongst lots of other people, a young brunette casually turned around. "You're not me." Faith said stoically.

Buffy was surprised at first when Faith stood there, but she soon snapped out of it. First she tried to do the talking routine Angel'd suggested, but there was just no reasoning with Faith. She hoped she could still talk her out of starting the fight in this crowded area, where people could get hurt, but it was no use.

She looked at her fellow-but-slightly-more-insane Slayer with crossed arms. "I guess it was too much to hope you'd use your downtime to reflect and grow."

"Could say the same about you. I mean you're still the same old 'better than thou' Buffy. I mean, I knew it somehow. I kept having this dream –not sure what it means- but in the dream this self-righteous, blonde chick stabs me. And you want to know why?" As Faith was talking Willow removed her backpack and slowly started to creep up behind her.

"You had it coming." Buffy said.

"That's one interpretation. But in my dream, she does it for a guy – Try it, Red, and you lose an arm!" She interrupted herself, knowing Willow was behind her and about to attack without even looking. Buffy gave Willow a small nod and she backed off. "I should be relieved to find she's still dating the guy, that I didn't get stabbed for nothing, but the part that really bugs me is she's forgotten all about the chick she nearly killed for him." Faith continued. "So that's my dream. That and some stuff about cigars in a tunnel. But, uh," She took a step closer. "Tell me, college girl…what does it mean?"

"To me?" Buffy asked. "Mostly, that you still mouth off about things you don't understand."

Buffy was just pissed off now, not even trying to talk to her anymore. She wanted a fight, she could get a fight. So when the police arrived and Faith tried to bail, they fought. But she got away anyway and left Buffy and Willow alone to try and come up with a plan to take her out.

* * *

Maybe the odds weren't so against Faith as she thought. Right now, she definitely had the advantage, as she was wearing the good guy's body. She wandered down the hall in Buffy's house, trying to figure out which one was the bathroom. She noticed she was only slightly sore after that fight, while in her own body she had been totally beat. Which might have had something to do with the just waking up from a coma, but still. It seemed Buffy had always been the stronger one, no matter how much she trained. 

She finally located the bathroom. After filling the tub, she let herself slide into the warm water and started thinking about what she was gonna do next. So, she was in Buffy's body now. Great. Now what, was she supposed to just live the rest of her life as miss goody two shoes? Not if Buffy and her friends could do anything about it. They'd probably notice pretty quick, so staying in Sunnydale was not an option.

No big, she just had to skip town and start living somewhere else. Maybe Mexico or something cliché like that.

She wondered what they were doing with her body. Probably dragging her off to the police. Or possibly back to the hospital. Whichever it was, it wasn't going to keep her away very long, so she had to move quickly.

After soaking up for about an hour, she got out of the water, and started practicing her best Buffy pout. She could do this. Maybe she could have some fun with her friends for a little while before she left. Ooh, and fondle Angel a bit, like she'd always wanted to do. That stupid bitch didn't deserve to be with him when all she did was keep him all souled up. Anyone with half a brain could see he was much funner when he was evil. Hm, maybe she could take care of that little problem too…

**

* * *

Well that was it for this chapter. I know it was a bit short, but I just had to sort fill the gap between the parts of the stuff with the Initiative and the Faith-body switch. Hope ya like it, and make sure to read the rewritten version of chapter one, and ooh, also revieeew! **


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey y'all, thank you so much for your reviews! I totally love getting them! Hm, I actually think I never updated this fast…or maybe it isn't fast…but maybe compared to how fast I've updated before. Anyway, I liked writing this, because I knew what I wanted to do with this chapter, with the others I was like…what to do now…Oh yeah, some lines were borrowed from _Who Are You?._Anyway, here's the new Faith-filled chapter! Hope ya like!**

* * *

Moving her body to the rhythm of the music, Faith concluded that this was way better than the patrol she so promised to do. She grinned at how righteous and Buffy-like she had sounded with the "You guys have your fun; I'll be out there doing my job." It was just too easy to fool those people. Of course they couldn't really know that something was off, since she was wearing Buffy's body…but still. 

Moving away from the dance floor she bumped into someone. And judging by his annoyed "Oh you." She'd say B knew him. "And you." She said, not really knowing what to say to someone she was supposed to know but, didn't.

"What are you keepin' tabs on me? You gonna give me a hard time now?"

"Do I usually give you a hard time?" She asked, pretending to play coy so he wouldn't notice she didn't know him.

"Very funny." Was all he said. "Well you don't have to worry 'bout me drinking. Unless you're here to protect innocent beers." He said, holding his beer bottle up for emphasis, and turning his back on her.

Realizing what he was, she smiled. So B knew another hot vampire that wasn't meant to be killed. She wondered what that was about. Maybe he was her boytoy on the side, for if Angel got boring. And even if he wasn't, she could have fun with him. She saw the way he looked at her, albeit unconsciously, and he was definitely liking what he saw. "You're a vampire." She said as she walked after him and slid her arm seductively up the pillar next to the staircase.

"_Was_." He said annoyed. "An' as soon as I get this chip out of my head, I'll be a vampire again. But until then, I'm just as helpless as a kitten up a tree, so why don't you sod off."

She shrugged, he obviously wasn't up for anything. "Kay." She said, and started to take off when she heard him yell indignantly.

"Oh fine throw it in my face!" She turned back around. "Spike's not a threat anymore I'll turn my back. He can't hurt me." Wait a second, this guy's name is Spike? Why did that sound so familiar…?

"Spike…" She mused to herself. Then it clicked. "Spike. William the Bloody with a chip in his head. I kinda love this town." She said as she moved closer to him.

"God!" He seethed. "You know why I really hate you, Summers?" He questioned as he tried to ignore the way she was looking at him with seductive eyes and pouting her lips slightly.

"'Cause I'm a stuck up tight ass with now sense of fun?"

"Well…yeah, that covers, a lot of it." He frowned.

"'Cause I can do anything I want, and instead I choose to pout and whine and feel the burden of Slayerness?" She continued. "I mean, I could be rich. I could be famous. I could have anything." She dropped her eyes on him. "Anyone." She moved closer to him and let her hands go over his chest, knowing the effect she was having on him. "Even you Spike." She pushed him against the pillar behind him. "I could ride you at a gallop until your legs buckled and your eyes rolled up. I've got muscles you've never even dreamed off. I could squeeze you until you popped like warm champagne, and you'd beg me to hurt you just a little bit more."

Spike could feel his body react to what she was saying, and for just a second couldn't bring himself to be disgusted. He had no idea why she was doing and saying all this, but for now he didn't care. He just wanted to see what she'd do next.

She leaned even closer to him and let her lips hover only inches from his, trying to get a reaction out of him. She wasn't disappointed as he crashed his lips instinctively into hers. She kissed him for a few seconds, letting her tongue glide over his until she suddenly pulled back and grinned at his confused face. "But you know why I don't?" She asked with pulled up eyebrows. "Because it's wrong." She grinned and giggled slightly before stalking away, leaving a very dazed Spike behind to try and figure out what the hell had just happened and why in God's name he wanted it to continue.

In frustration and anger at mostly himself he threw his bottle of beer against the wall and stormed his way to the exit, never noticing his completely shocked and jealous Grandsire as he passed by him.

* * *

At Willow's suggestion Faith decided to go pay Angel a little visit after she left the Bronze. She arrived at the apartment she looked up in Buffy's address book and knocked on the door. There was no answer. "Buffy." She heard behind her and turned around to see Angel standing there. After he had seen her and Spike together he had decided to follow her. 

"Oh hey. I was just coming to see you." She said and smiled at him as she leaned a little closer. She frowned when he just gave her an icy glare and opened to door to his apartment.

She stayed in the door opening and leaned against the doorpost in a sexy way. "You miss me?"

Angel turned around to her. "What happened to Faith?" He asked, trying to see if she'd bring the Spike thing up herself first or if she'd just keep silent about it.

She slowly prowled over to him. "Faith has won a fabulous trip to England with the Watcher's Council, and I got the consolation price." She wrapped her arms around his neck and leant in to kiss him. "Which is you."

Angel pulled away from her just as she was about to kiss him, thinking he was going to be sick as he smelt Spike's scent all over her.

"What's up?" Faith asked with a frown.

He quickly turned around. "What's up! I think you know what's up Buffy! I saw you with Spike." He spat out the name as though it was something filthy.

Faith smirked. "Jealous?" She asked and slowly walked up to him. "Afraid he might be…better?" Knowing exactly that was what was bothering him. That and the fact that he saw his girlfriend kissing his mortal enemy. She slid her arms over his chest and looked into his seriously pissed off face through her eyelashes. "Why don't you prove yourself to me?"

"What is wrong with you?" He asked. She was acting as though she was someone else. In fact, she was looking at him as though she was someone else. Her eyes seemed like they belonged to a complete stranger. Then it hit him. This wasn't Buffy. Everything about her was different; the slight change in her scent, the stranger eyes, the weird behaviour…the sudden attraction towards Spike. He had no idea what was going on, or whether this was just someone else or a possessed Buffy, but it wasn't her. "Who are you?"

"I'm Buffy." Faith said faking innocence and confusion. Trying to distract him she pressed her body against his and started kissing his neck.

He grabbed her roughly by the upper arms and pushed her against the wall. "Where is she?"

Knowing the jig was up, Faith pushed him away and threw a hard punch at him, causing him to land at the other side of the room unconscious, and ran out of the apartment. She knew Angel would tell B's friends and watcher, so she just had to hide some place until she could catch her plane tomorrow morning.

* * *

Tara and Willow entered Tara's dorm room after leaving the Bronze. "I'm sorry you're feeling all blechy. But we'll spend some more time with Buffy soon. You haven't really after her birthday and all." Willow said. "Once you get to know her more you'll really like her." 

Tara sighed. "She's not your friend." She said. She'd felt something really off about her at the Bronze. Also the fact that she didn't seem to know who she was and the mean behaviour was strange too. From what Willow had told her Buffy was nice to everyone. Except of course when they were evil monsters and stuff.

Willow frowned. "I may have overestimated the 'you liking her' factor."

"No, no. I mean, I don't…" She sighed, she never knew how to say things when she was nervous. "I don't think she's…her."

"You lost me." Willow said, frowning even deeper.

"Well, uhm, a person's energy has a flow, a unity." Tara started to explain. "Buffy's was, was fragmented. It – it grated, like something forced in where it doesn't belong. Plus, she was, uhm, she was kind of mean." She finished with a shy smile.

"So you think Buffy's not herself? Like she's been possessed or something?"

Tara sighed. "I'm not sure."

"You didn't sense a hyena energy at all, did you? 'Cause hyena possession is just…unpleasant." Willow said, shuddering at the thought of Xander under hyena influence.

Trying to find a way to find out what had happened to Buffy Tara thought of a spell she'd read about. "Do you have anything of hers?"

"Of Buffy's? Uh…oh! This ring." Willow said and held out her hand to show.

"I-I think there's a way we can, hmm…" She reached for a spell book and searched for the page she needed for the spell. "The passage to the nether realm. There – there's a ritual. If you can find Buffy there, you should be able to see."

"If it'll help her." Willow was amazed at how Tara was just able to tell that there was something wrong with Buffy. _She_ was her best friend and she didn't have a clue, and here Tara was, she barely knew Buffy, and she saw right away. It made her feel sort of proud of her. "What?" She asked when Tara sighed as though something heavy was on her mind.

"Well, the nether realm exists beyond the physical world. Accessing it is…i-it-it's kind of like astral projection. It's very intense. I'd have to be your anchor, keep you on this plane."

Willow nodded. "I trust you." And it was true. She trusted Tara with her life somehow. She had no idea why, but whenever she was with her she felt safe, as if she belonged.

"It-it's not like anything that we've ever-"

"I trust you." She assured.

* * *

Faith ran through a cemetery, thinking she'd just hide in a random crypt somewhere. She burst into the first one she met and was surprised when she found the place not only lit by a bunch of candles, but also occupied by a very familiar bleached blonde vampire. 

"Well, well, well, what 'ave we here." He said as he got up from his chair and faced the Slayer.

Faith grinned. Maybe she could have some fun with this. And besides, after eight months of lying in a coma she was horny as hell, and Spike was _hot_.

"Hope you're not here to finish that little snogging session from earlier, 'cause I'm still tryin' to keep my breakfast in from that one." He said as he saw her walking towards him.

She didn't say a word, just kept a small smile teasing on her lips as she prowled closer to him.

He backed away slightly, not wanting to find out what she was planning. Or she wanted to kill him, or she wanted to shag him; either way, it couldn't be good. "Better not come closer, Slayer, you might do something that's _wrong_. Wouldn't want that, right?" He swallowed when he came in contact with the wall behind him and looked at the Slayer, who was still slowly walking up to him. What the hell was wrong with this chit?

"Oh Spike, I don't care about being wrong anymore. I came to my senses." She was now only inches away from him, and let her hands run freely over his chest. "I want you Spike." She whispered in his ear, knowing she was getting to him whether he wanted it or not, and bit his earlobe.

Spike's eyes fluttered closed for a second as she began kissing his neck until he snapped out of it and grabbed her by the upper arms and pulled her off him. "Bloody hell Slayer, you're off your rocker! We _hate_ each other, remember?" He tried to reason with her. Because he really did hate her; he just wasn't sure if he didn't want to shag her.

"Doesn't mean we don't want each other." She pulled her arms free from his grip and pressed her body against his. "Come on Spike, don't tell me you never wondered what it would be like? You and me, vampire and Slayer. We could go for hours."

"Sod off woman!" He growled, but the effect was not as convincing as he'd hoped as it came out with a gasp when she grabbed his a little too evident hard on.

She grinned and grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him on the sarcophagus. She climbed on top of him, straddling him between her legs, and ripped of his shirt. He was about to make a last effort at protesting when she crashed her lips on his, and he just gave in and enjoyed the moment, consequences of self-disgust be damned.

* * *

Faith pulled on her shirt and fluffed her hair a bit. She looked at the grimy window and could see that it was definitely morning. She looked at the sleeping vampire on the sarcophagus and felt a twinge of guilt in her gut. They had been going at it for hours, and he had obviously liked it. Of course she'd really liked it herself too; but she was messing with people's lives and feelings here and – she cut the thought off, telling herself that it was justified, that Buffy and her friends deserved to be punished for what they did to her. 

She always willed herself not to think about the things she did, the people she hurt or killed, because then she'd be weak. Then she'd show that she was not the tough girl everyone thought she was. Then she'd break down.

So she shut off her emotions and with a last look at Spike she hurried out of the crypt to get to the airport.

* * *

Angel groaned as he woke with the biggest headache ever. He sat up and momentarily wondered why he was on the floor when he remembered. Something happened to Buffy! He had to find her and get to Giles'. He noticed it was already morning, so he'd been unconscious for almost the entire night; Buffy, or whoever she was, could be anywhere. Giles' first then. He got up and bolted out the door. 

"Giles!" He yelled as he entered the Watcher's home.

Giles put down the thee pot and hurried out of the kitchen. "Angel. Good Lord what happened to you?" He asked when he saw the big bruise on Angel's left cheek.

"Buffy hit me."

Giles frowned. "Bu –"

"-Only it wasn't Buffy. It was someone else. Or maybe she was possessed, or something. I don't know what happened, but something is wrong with Buffy, she's not herself!"

Giles took a step closer and took of his glasses. "What do you mean?"

"At the Bronze I saw her kissing _Spike_, and when she came to my place she was acting really strange. And when I looked in her eyes I saw something…well it wasn't her. But then she knocked me out and ran off, and I don't know if she's dangerous or not, but we have to find her!"

* * *

Buffy sat chained up in the van, waiting for those Council guys to come so she could make her move. She'd sat there for hours and her butt was really getting sore. She'd tried really hard not to think of what Faith was doing in her body, because then she'd just start to panic. Thoughts like 'what if she kills my friends?' involuntarily shot through her head, and the worst kind of scenario's kept playing over and over when all she could do is wait. 

"They can't get us passage. They've ordered the kill." She heard Collin's thick accented voice say.

"Torch the place?" Another said.

"Get the gass."

"She could've killed me. She didn't." The one, Smith, she had held hostage for a second to try and convince them to let her go, said.

"Lucky you." Collins' voice was close now, and Buffy lay down and got her feet ready to attack. With a gun in his hands he reached through the bars of the door, and she quickly grabbed his hands with her feet. She pulled and he rammed into the car hard enough to stun him before he could react. She pulled the gun to her hands and shot the locks on the chains that were holding her so they opened.

"Weatherby!" Smith yelled as he realised what was going on, and ran away.

Buffy shot the lock of the door between her part of the van and the driver's area and opened the door, and crawled behind the wheel. "Keys, keys." She mumbled as she searched for the keys of the car.

"Stop her, you ponce!" Weatherby yelled, and rushes to the truck.

Buffy opens the door and rams it into him, knocking him out. She put the found keys in the ignition and calmed herself. "Okay, I'm good at this." She shifted gears. "Ooh, drive."

Smith found a gun and tried to shoot the truck, but Buffy drove away, smashing it through the wooden door into the road.

**

* * *

Well, well, well, Faith sure has gotten Buffy into a lot of trouble. She really is a little rascal isn't she? Ahem, anyway, I hope you all enjoyed that. Be sure to review, and tell me what you thought of it …No, that wasn't begging at all…**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey people, sorry for letting you guys wait so long. I was kinda stuck. But this chapter turned out longer than usual, since I had to get that Faith stuff out of the way finally so I'd be able to move on and stuff…**

**Bunch of lines taken from _Who Are You?_ And _Sanctuary (Angel ep. 8)_.  
Okay, enjoy!**

* * *

"Giles!" Buffy yelled as she burst into Giles' house. 

"God!" Giles exclaimed, nearly getting a heart attack upon seeing Faith.

"Don't move. Okay, Giles, you have to listen to me very carefully. I'm not Faith."

"Really?" He asked, glancing nervously at the door Angel had disappeared behind to try and call Willow so that she could do a locator spell to find Buffy.

"Really."

"'Cause the resemblance is striking."

"I know. Giles, you just have to…" She trailed off when she saw Giles trying to move away. "Stop inching. You were inching!" She could see he was very scared. But he'd calm down when she told him she wasn't Faith, right?

"Look, I-I know what you're going to say, and-and uh-"

"I'm Buffy." Buffy said seriously.

"Alright I didn't know what you were going to say, but that doesn't make you any less crazy."

Just then Angel re-entered the room. "Giles, there was no answer when I –" He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Faith. "Faith." He said, trying to remain calm while looking around for a weapon of some sort.

Buffy quickly went up to him and was about to hug him when she saw him taking in a defensive position, thinking she was going to attack. "Angel, it's me." She said, hoping he could somehow see she wasn't Faith. He looked at her blankly, so she took a step closer. "I'm Buffy. Faith switched – I mean, she had some device. She switched our bodies!"

Angel looked into her eyes, and he could see the thing that was missing in 'Buffy's' eyes. "I know." He then said. She looked at him surprised, so he explained. "When Buffy, eh, _she_ came to me last night I knew she wasn't you, but she knocked me out before I could do anything."

"You knew?" Buffy asked bashfully with a bright smile.

Giles took a step forward, taking of his glasses. "U-uhm, if-if you _are_ Buffy, then Faith could be in your body doing God knows what right now."

"Yeah, for all I know she's taken it to Mexico by now!"

"Alright, let's–" He rubbed his forehead confusedly. "uhm, I need you to explain everything."

"And I will, after we get Faith."

"Did she hurt you?" Angel asked worriedly.

"I think I hurt her more than she did me, which is why in her body I'm feeling a little woozy."

"Giles!" Willow burst into the house, followed by Tara.

"Will." Buffy said, taking a step closer to her.

"Oh, my god." Willow said, only shortly surprised to see Faith there before she quickly remembered that Buffy was in Faith's body.

"Willow wait, you don't understand."

"You're Buffy. You and Faith switched bodies, probably through a Draconian Katra spell."

"She understands it better than I do." Giles muttered to himself.

"How did you?"

"Tara. She could see right away you weren't you." She paused to smile at Tara, and focused back on Buffy/Faith. "So we connected with the nether realms to find out what happened. And we conjured this." She showed a small with a glowy green thing in it.

"What is-"

"It's a Katra. Or the home-conjured version. It-it should switch you back, if you can get a hold of Faith."

"Oh thank God." Buffy sighed in relief.

The phone rang, and it was Xander telling them to watch the news. There were a bunch of vampires holding the people in the church hostage, so they decided to take care of that first before going after Faith. In the mean time at the airport Faith saw the same news report, and hesitantly decided to go after the vampires instead of getting on her plane.

* * *

When Buffy entered the church she saw that Faith was there in her body fighting the vampires, which had surprised her. She'd thought for sure that Faith would have long fled the country or something. Faith was thrown back against a pillar by a vampire, so Buffy went up there and staked the vamp. Faith looked at her own body with widened eyes, but then leapt forward to attack.  
They exchanged punches, but Faith was slightly quicker and hit Buffy down. But Buffy came back with an uppercut and knocked her back. "You can't win this." She said. 

Faith wiped at her mouth. "Shut up! Do you think I'm afraid of you?" She grabbed Buffy and threw her down, then straddled her and frantically started punching her. "You're nothing! Disgusting!" She grabbed the hair of her own body and started banging her head against the floor. "Murderous bitch! You're nothing!" She switched back to punching. "You're disgusting!" She was now crying.

Faith was about to punch again, but Buffy was able to grab her hand. Their joined hands glowed, and they switched back to their own bodies. Buffy fell back, looking shocked.  
Faith looked around frantically, and jumped up, fleeing the church.

Outside Angel saw Faith running from the church, and he instantly knew this wasn't Buffy anymore and ran after her. "Faith!" He yelled while running, but she didn't even look up. He could see she was running in the direction of the train station. She ran into an alley. Angel took a sprint and jumped against her, sending them both to the ground.

With a hard kick Faith got Angel off her. She smashed one of the boxes standing against the wall and took one pointed piece of wood and attacked Angel. He blocked her hands away and jumps up. They slammed each other around and Angel managed to get the wood away from Faith and threw it behind him.

"Is that all you got, vampire? Get in the game." Faith said, once again putting up her tough-girl act. She hooked her foot behind another box and threw it at his face and it smashed, sending wood flying everywhere. She jumped him, wrapping her legs around his waist and slamming him against the wall. She hit him repeatedly before he pushed her back.

"You can't take me! No one can take me!" Faith yelled.

Angel could see some sort of desperateness in her eyes, as if she was only a second away of breaking down. She jumped to kick him, but he avoided it and she hit the wall behind him.

"Come on!" She yelled and he tackled her and they both burst into the remaining boxes against the wall.

- Buffy came out of the church and went up to Giles, Willow and Tara. "Did you see where she went?" She asked.

Willow looked worried. "You're Buffy again right?" Buffy nodded. "She ran that way, and Angel followed her." She then said and pointed in the direction Faith and Angel disappeared.

"Towards the train station." Buffy mumbled to herself. Suddenly she felt raindrops on her head and frowned. She could have sworn it was a sunny day. Oh well, she shrugged it off and ran in the direction Willow had pointed.

- "You hear me? You don't know what evil is! I'm bad! Fight back!" Faith screamed as she kept whaling on Angel, the rain now pouring down on them.

- While Buffy was running she heard Faith's voice and sounds of fighting to her left so she quickly changed directions. The alley they were in came into view and she could see Faith beating up Angel and him not really fighting back. She searched around for a weapon and saw an iron pole on the ground. She ran up to the alley and was about to get Faith away from Angel, when she could hear and see a change in the way Faith was fighting him.

Faith began to sob, grabbing onto Angel's shirt and shaking him as if trying to get through to him. "Do you hear me? I'm bad! I'm bad! I'm bad. Please. Angel, please, just do it. Just do it. Just kill me. Just kill me."

Angel wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her against him, and they sank to their knees. "Ssh, it's all right. It's okay, I'm here. I'm right here, ssh." Angel tried to soothe her as she cried in his arms.

From behind them Buffy dropped the pole from her hand as she stood in the rain, staring at Faith crying.

* * *

Angel led Faith through the door of his apartment, followed by a reluctant Buffy. "Come on." He said gently, and led Faith to his bedroom. She sat down on the bed with her arms wrapped around herself. 

"It's okay, rest here." He said.

She glanced unsurely at Buffy who was standing behind him with her arms crossed and looking at her sharply, and she lay down. Angel covered her with a blanket. "You rest now." He stood up straight. "I'll be close." He said, and turned to leave.

"Angel." Faith said.

He turned back. "Yeah."

A flash went through Faith where she saw herself taking a large butcher's knife and attacking Angel. She looked from him to Buffy and at him again. "Nothing." She then said, knowing that now she'd finally shed that 'nothing touches me' act and revealed not only to them but to herself as well how completely fucked up and self-destructive she was, she had to try and think like someone who's not a killer.

Angel left the room, taking Buffy with him who was still intent on guarding Faith and if necessary pound on her a little. "I think you should leave." Angel said as soon as he'd closed the door behind him.

"_What_?"

"She's obviously very uncomfortable around you, and I'm not gonna be able to talk to her if you're keeping such a close eye on her."

Buffy stared at him incredulously. "Oh _she_'s uncomfortable around _me_ now? What about her trying to kill me not an hour ago? _Some_one has to be here who's ready to actually _fight_ her if she goes psycho again!"

"See this is exactly why it's better if you're not around right now! Did you not see what happened out there? She completely broke down!"

"Oh what, just because she finally had the nervous break down that was a long time coming, she's forgiven for all she's done? To me? To all the people she's killed?"

Angel sighed in frustration. Sometimes Buffy was a little too black-or-white minded. "Buffy please just, just go. We'll talk later, okay?"

With one last look at Angel's bedroom door and a furious glare at Angel she stormed out of the apartment without a word.

* * *

"He gave her his bed!" Buffy exclaimed and kicked a poll of grass as she and Willow strolled through the cemetery. "I couldn't believe it! And he just stood there defending _her_ to _me_, like, 'oh she's such a poor lost soul!' And, did I mention he gave her his _bed_?" 

"About five times now." Willow said. She took Buffy by the arm and they stopped walking. "Look Buffy, I know you don't like it, and trust me, I'm all about the not-liking, but Angel knows what he's doing. I'm sure he does. You just have to trust him." She said with an apologetic look.

Buffy sighed. "I know. And I do. It's just that Angel always wants to save everyone's soul, but some people just don't deserve to be saved. _Faith_ doesn't deserve to be saved, she deserves jail!"

"And I'm all for it!" Willow assured. "But maybe Angel's getting to that. Maybe, he's just trying to make sure that once she gets there, she won't, you know, break out and kill all the guards."

Buffy opened her mouth to reply when her spidey-sense told her there was a vampire behind them. With her stake ready she turned around, but sighed and dropped her arm when she saw who it was. "What are you doing here, Spike?" She asked annoyed.

"Just out for a spot of violence." Spike answered in a defensive tone. "I wasn't lookin' for you, if tha's what you were hoping!" He threw his cigarette to the ground and glanced at Willow before focussing back on Buffy. "In fact, if you hadn't been up 'n about so hastily this morning, I would've _thrown_ you out anyway! Last night was a big mistake, never to happen again. So please, never even _mention_ it again, 'cause it makes me want to heave." He finished his rant, hoping it sounded convincing. The truth was that he really didn't know how he felt about last night. He knew he still hated the Slayer, but he found himself a lot less disgusted by it than he'd thought.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Buffy asked with a frown, not wanting to think of what Faith could have possibly done with Spike in her body.

For a moment Spike didn't know what to say when he looked at her confused and sort of disturbed expression, when he looked at Willow again and smirked. "Oh right, don't want your little friend to know."

"Uhm, know what?" Buffy asked, now getting a little nervous. This did not sound good.

He took a slow step closer to her, smirk still in place. "You, me, shagging the night away." He ignored her horrified expression and turned to Willow. "Best shag of my life too. Or, in a while at least." He looked back at Buffy who was still unable to form thought. "Maybe Dru could give you some pointers; she's an expert when it comes to chains."

Willow cleared her throat. "Uhm, Spike, not to uh…I mean, I don't really know what happened last night, not sure I _want_ to, but Buffy wasn't exactly…she wasn't herself to say the least."

Spike snorted. "I could've told you that, Red. She was out of 'er bleedin' mind."

"No – I mean, she literally wasn't herself. She switched bodies with Faith."

He frowned. "Who?"

"The other slayer, who's sort of evil – it's a long story. But anway, whatever you uh, did, with Buffy, it wasn't her it was Faith actually."

Spike smirked. "Oh really?" He drawled. He turned to Buffy and was about to say something when he saw she had finally snapped out of her state of shock and he was met with a fist in his face. "Bloody hell!" He growled as he clutched his nose.

Buffy hovered over him, shaking in anger. If what he was saying was true… "How dare you!" She gritted out. "You – you –" She couldn't speak, she felt disgusting and dirty, even though she hadn't done anything.

"_Me_?" Spike asked as he got up. "You're the one who wouldn't stop coming on to me! Or I suppose it wasn't you, was it?" He said in a mocking tone. "Come up with a pretty sorry cover-up story, Slayer. Next time you go an' do _wrong_ things, you might wanna pick something a bit more believable!" He was livid, not only had she tricked him into doing something he really hadn't wanted to get into, but she actually had the guts to deny it now!

They glared at each other. "I _swear_ to you, it was _not_ me who did whatever the hell 'I' did. Faith used some kind of device and switched our bodies, and decided to mess up my life in mine. If you won't believe me I will prove it." Buffy ground out.

"Fine." Spike said, and she almost hoped he believed her. "Prove it." He said and she grumbled.

"Will, I –"

"- gotta take care of this." Willow finished for her, glancing warily at Spike. "I know, I'll see you later."

"Come on." Buffy said as soon as Willow had gone. She took off in the direction of Angel's apartment, followed by Spike. She was going to kill Faith! Now she knew where that strange soreness she'd felt had come from! God, she felt so…violated!

"So, finally got rid of Red eh? Couldn't wait to 'ave me all for yourself?" Spike asked with a smirk as he moved with long strides to keep up with her angry steps. He wasn't really as sure anymore whether she was telling the truth or not. It would explain a lot of things…

"Shut up." She spat at him.

"Where we goin' then?" He asked as they turned a corner.

She ignored him and just kept walking in a fast pace until she reached the apartment and stormed in. "Faith!" She yelled.

Angel started and turned around to see Buffy coming in, looking really pissed off. "Buffy –'

"Where is she!" She demanded, interrupting him.

"Y'know luv, a simple 'please' wouldn't hurt once in a while." Spike mentioned as he sauntered into the apartment.

Angel looked at him in surprise, not having noticed him before. "What the hell is _he_ doing here?" He asked Buffy.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Spike answered for her. "Slayer dragged my here to prove some kind of point, I s'pose." He looked around the apartment. "This your place? Bit too…what's the word, common, for me."

As always he was ignored by both Buffy and Angel. "Buffy what's going on?" Just then the bathroom door opened and Faith came in. She looked up startled as she saw Buffy suddenly lunging forward to her, but Angel held her back.

"Let me go Angel!" Buffy said angrily. She looked at Faith with fire shooting out of her eyes. She struggled against Angel's grip, but he held her tightly.

Faith didn't really know what to do; she could fight back, but on the other had she'd probably deserved whatever she'd done to make Buffy so angry again. Then her eye fell on the bleached blonde standing behind Buffy and Angel and her eyes grew wide. "Oh."

"_Oh_? That's all you have to say? You _used_ my body to have _sex_ with that – that _thing_, and you say 'oh'!"

"What?" Angel instantly released Buffy in surprise and his head shot to Spike with a menacing growl.

"Don' look at me, it wasn't my fault!" Spike said in dignified defence, he didn't want people going around believing he seduced the Slayer. He looked the dark haired girl over and he could smell the power on her, albeit a bit weaker than Buffy's. "You must be Faith then? Now it makes sense; I thought it was strange for a goody-goody like Buffy to enjoy bondage fun, but I s'pose I could expect it from you." He said with a smirk.

"Bastard!" Angrily Angel leapt forward and grabbed Spike by his coat and was about to punch him.

"Don't!" Faith quickly said. "It wasn't his fault." Angel released Spike and turned to her. "I came onto him…I wanted to mess with Buffy's life and…" She looked at Buffy, who was glaring at her with fury in her eyes. "I'm sor –"

"Apologize to me and I'll beat you to death." Buffy ground out. She didn't care about any redemption; she just wanted to see Faith suffer for what she'd done to her and those surrounding her.

Faith bowed her head a little. "Go ahead." She said softly.

Suddenly two large looking demons crashed through the door. "Angelus." One of them growled.

"Been making enemies, Peaches?" Spike asked as they all stared at the demons.

Before Angel could answer the demons came forward and they started to fight. Faith looked, unsure of what to do. She wanted to fight, but something inside her froze. One of the demons approached her and in panic she looked around for a weapon, grabbing a kitchen knife from the counter. She had a struggle with the demon, until she was able to stab it multiple times until it finally died, resting all its heavy weight on top of her.  
She dropped the knife and frantically tried to push the body off her and crawled to her feet. With large eyes she stared at her shaking hands, covered in blood.

"What the hell were they doing here?" Buffy asked as she looked at the corpse of the other demon lying on the ground.

Angel shrugged. "I don't know. Probably out for revenge or something." He looked around for Faith, and saw her standing near the kitchen area, the other demon dead on the ground. She was looking scared out of her life at her bloody hands, shaking her head. He quickly walked up to her and took her in his arms. "Hey. Hey. Hey. Shh. Hey. Shh. It's- it's okay." Faith wrapped her arms around his neck, careful not to touch him with her bloody hands. "Hey. It's gonna be okay. Okay?" Angel held her shaking form as he tried to soothe her.

Buffy crossed her eyes and looked Faith straight in the eye. "Aw, got some blood on your hands Faithie?" She said in a mocking tone.

Angel released Faith and turned to Buffy. "Buffy…" He started warningly, but she ignored him and took a few steps to stand in front of Faith.

"You know if you don't like it, maybe you should have thought about that _before_ you started killing people." Buffy said menacingly.

"Buffy that's enough!" Angel said. She had to stop it or she'd push Faith over the edge.

"Oh I'm nowhere near finished." She said, so he grabbed her shoulder to pull her away, but in a reflex she lashed out and punched him in the face. Also acting on reflex, Angel punched her back, realizing what he'd done right when he saw her shocked face. "I'm sorry – I'm sorry." He said.

"You hit me." She said accusingly as she pressed her hand where he'd hit her.

"Not to go all schoolyard on you, but you hit me first. In case you've forgotten, youré a little bit stronger than I am."

"You did it for _her_."

"You were about three seconds from making her run – you know that. She's at a crucial stage."

"Uhm, hate to interrupt this touching moment, but the bint took off." Spike said, inwardly smirking at the dramatic show they were performing.

Buffy whirled around and saw that Faith was indeed no longer there. She turned to Spike. "What? And you just let her go?"

He shrugged, and Angel ran out the apartment, followed by Buffy. He came outside and looked around, but there was no sight of her.

"I knew it. I knew she'd run." Buffy said, shaking her head.

He turned around to her, looking angry. "If it wasn't for you –"

"-You're blaming this on _me_?" She asked incredulously. She gave a humourless chuckle. "That's it, I'm sick of this crap. I'm going to the police. Let them take care of her." She started walking away.

"You know they couldn't handle her." Angel said, following her, but knowing her couldn't stop her anymore now.

"I don't care anymore."

After power walking to the police station with Angel on her heels, Buffy went inside and walked up to the main desk. Angel stepped in front her, blocking her path. "I can't let you go through with this."

"You can't stop me." She said, and looked at the cop standing there. "Hi."

"Buffy just think about this." Angel said, trying to reason with her before it was too late.

She ignored him. "I –" She halted when something caught her eye. To her left, at one of the desks sat Faith, and her eyes grew wide.

"Yes?" The cop in front of Buffy asked, but she didn't hear him.

A police officer walked up to Faith and she stood up. "I'd like to make a confession."

"Miss, can I help you?" The impatient man in front of Buffy asked annoyed.

"What? Uh, never mind." She said, a little confused. Apparently Angel had been right, and Faith _did_ want to change and do penance for what she'd done.

* * *

They stood outside the police station, not really knowing what do now. The way it ended with Faith was not what either had expected, and now they just stood there, thinking about what happened and the way they'd treated each other. 

"So…what now?" Buffy asked, and she looked up at Angel.

"What do you mean?"

"After everything that's happened with Faith and us and…Spike."

"That wasn't your fault." Angel said, although the thought of Spike having touched her body sickened him.

"I know. But it was still my body. He was all over it and touching and…" She shuddered. "I feel disgusting."

Angel took her by her arms and looked her in the eye. "Buffy I'm not happy about it either, but it wasn't you. It wasn't. We'll just have to put it behind us."

She smiled a little. "You're right. You were also right about Faith. But the way I talked to you…and we hit each other."

He smirked. "Nothing that hasn't happened before." He said, feeling that keeping it light was better now. Nothing good would come out of dwelling on things that were said or done, or they'd never be able to be together without going crazy.

"Yeah but –" She started to protest, but he silenced her with a soft kiss on her lips. She smiled at him.

"Let's go home." He put his arm around her shoulders and kissed her hair before they started walking in the direction of his apartment.

**

* * *

Well…long chapter…lotsa stuff happenin' an' all…jup good…I hope.  
Anyway, I'm planning on jumping forward to start season five, since I figure the rest would be pretty much just season four with minor changes, and season five is where I want to start the AU-ishness. So if anyone thinks this is a terrible and disastrous idea, please let me know **


	9. Chapter 9

_Hey you guys, thank you sooo much for your reviews! They're all so wonderful!  
I'm sorry for letting you wait so long, this chapter was kinda hard to write…I think some parts were kind of ehm, sucky, but hey I'm just the critical writer here, judge for yourself!_

OOO

Despite what Angel had said, things had been weird between him and Buffy after the whole Faith/Spike ordeal. But strangely it had been Jonathan to talk sense into both of them. Of course he had all this knowledge of relationships and stuff due to a spell, but that was beside the point.

Then everything had started to move so fast, Forrest was killed, Riley disappeared and suddenly the Scoobygang was having a huge fight which was pretty much triggered by Spike. But all had been talked out, and they promised each other to never not talk again.

With Xander's brilliant idea of becoming one big Slayerpackage they had moved into the Initiative to fight Adam. Carnage, bloodshed and big primal forces were all around, but thanks to the help of Spike and Angel the demons and army guys had stayed clear of the area where they had cast the spell.

When all the fighting was over, they went home for a vid-fest, which ended in a night of almost getting killed in bizarre dreams by the First Slayer.

Then Riley had come to say his final goodbye; he was leaving for South America with the remainder of the Initiative, who were not so much interested in the experimenting on demons as the killing of them. Buffy hadn't really been sad to see him go.

Now it was summer and Buffy was enjoying her vacation, or at least she had been until Dracula showed up and caused some trouble. Buffy'd been surprised when it turned out she knew three people who had not only met him, but also had some form of relationship with him, and no one had bothered to tell her he actually existed. When he'd come into her bedroom and thralled her into letting him bite her, Angel was more than a little upset and he'd looked as though he wanted to bite her himself to get that mark from her neck. He and Spike had shared some mutual loathing for their old 'friend', during which Buffy had gone over to Dracula's place where he had told her some stuff which got her wondering about the darker side of the Slayer, of herself.

Even though she'd killed Dracula eventually, and Willow and Tara had done a disinviting-spell, Buffy had been reluctant to sleep in her own room at home, so she had spent the last few nights at Angel's. Not that that was any different from where she usually was…

"Mm, I wish I didn't have to go." Buffy moaned as she curled closer against Angel in his bed.

"Then don't. Stay." He said as he rolled them so he was on top of her and started kissing a line from her jaw to her neck.

"I can't." She breathed. "I promised my mom I'd have dinner with her." She let her hands slide along his back and he kissed her lips. "I can be a little late." She said then, and they engulfed further into each other.

- Nearly reaching her climax Buffy felt a strange urge rise inside of her. A kind of primal need for something… "Bite." She whispered, and she knew then that was what she wanted.

He halted and raised his head to look at her with a surprised look on his face. "What?"

She opened her eyes to look at him intently. "Bite me." She said more clearly.

He searched her eyes for a sign that she wasn't sure of what she was asking, but all he could see was the certainty and wanting. Remaining in eye contact with her he brought forth his demon visage and slowly lowered his head. He kissed her neck where her jugular was, before gently piercing the skin with his fangs. She gasped when she felt his fangs in her neck the same time he started moving again, and felt a sort of pleasurable pain as he started taking slow pulls of her blood.

Angel really didn't know what to expect when he felt her blood trickle on his tongue, he hadn't tried drinking any blood since he became 'human'. Her blood tasted like an exotic delicacy, rich and powerful, and it certainly heightened both his and Buffy's pleasure.

When they both had climaxed, Angel gently pulled his teeth out of her neck and started licking the wound clean. He then lay down beside her and looked at her for a while, not saying a word while she caught her breath.

"Oh my god…" Buffy softly whispered. She looked over at Angel and smiled.

"What just happened?" Angel asked wonderingly. It wasn't as though he hadn't wanted to bite her, it was part of his remaining vampire instincts after all, but he'd never known Buffy knew about that sort of things, let alone enjoy it.

She propped herself up on one elbow looked into his eyes as she thought of it herself, thoughtfully fingering the fresh marks in her neck with her free hand. What _had_ just happened? It was like a sudden craving, like she needed it for some reason. But she had no idea why…"I really don't know." She finally answered. She smiled. "We'll have to talk about it later, though. I'm definitely late now." She kissed him on the lips. "I love you." She said, and then hurriedly jumped out of bed and started gathering her clothing.

OOO

After having dinner with her mom and Dawn Buffy went on a quick patrol. Or at least that's what she'd hoped, but the pack of at least a dozen vampires had other ideas.  
She sighed. "Alright, let's do this quickly."

"Yeah it'll be quick Slayer, quick for _you_!" The sort of leader said, and all the others laughed as though he'd just said something extremely cool.

She rolled her eyes. How original, hardee har har. She felt another vampire behind her and turned around. "Oh you." She said, and turned back as the bleached vampire took his position beside her.

"Mind if I join you, pet?" He said in his nicest voice, knowing how she hated it when he jumped in on her fights, and hating the fact that he actually cared about that.

"Whatever." She sighed just as three of the pack attacked. They were easily killed.

The others of the group wavered a bit. "Don't just stand there, kill them!" The leader yelled, but stayed behind himself, fearing for his unlife.

When the others too were slain, and Buffy looked at him expectantly, he ran. She rolled her eyes. "Typical." She muttered.

"Shouldn't we go after him?" Spike asked, ready for some more action.

"No need." She said, as she held her stake up and threw it at the vampire, who had already run away a few yards, and it turned to dust. She turned around to Spike and frowned when she saw him looking at her with a strange puppy dog-ish expression on. "What?"

He blinked, and tried to put on a more 'hateful' look. "Nothin'. Come on, there's probably lots of nasties out there just waitin' to be killed." He said and started walking in a brisk pace. Man he hated her. Or, okay, as he recently discovered, he really didn't. But he hated the fact that she made him love her so much.

After that whole body-switch incident, the dreams he had about her had started to be more about having sex with her rather than about killing her. Only recently the dreams had gotten worse. They'd been about normal stuff. Them having just normal fun together. Laughing at each others jokes, and talking about their lives. And the violent sex scenarios had turned into making love. The last dream had been the one to make him fully understand the feelings he had developed for her. In that one he had expressed his deep, undying and devoted love for her.

So now he knew he was in love with her. The Slayer. The Slayer who he was supposed to hate and kill. The one who was seriously involved with his Grandsire; a little fact that made him go mad with jealousy.  
But he couldn't let her find out. If she knew he loved her, she'd first of all kill him, and second she would never stop making fun of him. And then of course Angel would come down to kill him as well.  
But he couldn't help but want to be around her a lot. Which was why he was patrolling with her right now, and why he tortured himself at night as he stood outside as she made love to Angel inside. God was he buggered.

OOO

Buffy entered Angel's apartment with the key he had given her. "Hey, I'm back." She called.

"Hi." Angel said when he appeared from the kitchen and gave her a quick kiss. "How was dinner?"

"Oh you know, normal. Mom made me feel guilty about never being home and Dawn was annoying and called us lust-bunnies. I think she hung around Faith too much. You know, before she became evil." She took off her jacket and sat on the couch. "And then I went patrolling and Spike showed up, and he was annoying as well. At least I got to kill a group of extremely dumb vampires."

Angel sat down next to her and looked at her. "He's been showing up a lot on patrol lately."

"Yeah? Hm, didn't notice. He's probably getting bored, sitting in that mouldy crypt all day." She shrugged and leaned into him.

"So, are we going to talk about this, or what?"

"'Bout what, Spike?" She asked, even though she knew he was talking about the whole 'bite me' thing from earlier.

"You know what I mean."

She sighed heavily and sat up straight again so she could look into his eyes. "Yeah I know." She took another deep breath and fingered the already healing mark on her neck. "I guess all this stuff started when we did that spell to stop Adam. You know, the whole primeval thing. It brought out a side of me, of being the Slayer, that's…I don't know, darker. Dracula saw that too, and I think I understood it when –"

"- When he bit you." Angel said. He couldn't help but feel a little jealous when he thought of that, even though he knew it was thrall.

"Yes, but also when he let me drink from his blood."

"What?" Angel jumped up. "You drank his blood? You never told me about that!" He said, looking at her accusingly.

She took his hand and forced him to sit back down. "I didn't tell you because I didn't know what it meant. But when I talked to Giles, he said that the first Slayer was actually part demon, and that that's where that dark part comes from. I mean, yeah I drank his blood, only a little, but I think I understood it. I think a part of me needs it. Earlier, it felt like a craving, like I _needed_ you to bite me." She looked into his eyes, hoping that he understood, and that he wasn't totally grossed out by her. But she didn't think he would be, after all, he was still part vampire and had been one for over two hundred years.

"I've always known Slayers are more alike demons than the Watchers Council likes to admit to them, and that there are darker sides to her. And I mean, especially during sex certain urges can come out I guess. Hell, I've known regular humans who liked to –" he cut himself off at Buffy's frown and coughed. "Eh, what I mean is, it's mostly a vampire thing to do the biting thing, I guess I just never thought that you liked uhm…that." He frowned, this was getting awkward.

"Yeah me neither." Buffy said, and they both looked at their hands for a moment. She cleared her throat. "Okay, glad that incredibly embarrassing conversation's over." She said with a nervous smile, and they stayed silent for another few moments. "Wanna watch a movie?"

Angel smiled at her. "Sure." He turned on the TV and Buffy snuggled up closely to him. They both felt closer to each other now than ever, now that they shared something that was part of both their natures.

OOO

_Los Angeles…_

At night in a busy section of LA, people were walking past, talking and laughing, not knowing about the dark magics about to take place below them. Underneath the ground was a round chamber, lit by fires in the alcoves along the wall, the ceiling supported by a circle of pillars.   
A stone statue and two bowls holding more flames were set up in the middle, forming an equal triangle inside the circle of pillars.

A demon with long saggy hair and a pale wrinkled face with a scar across it walked in and stopped in front of the statue, and started to chant. "The weight of time is heavy on the world. And all men born must die. But there are worlds unknown, where dreamers dream and sleepers sleep, and patiently await. As pledged in Caladan by Cod-she," The demon called Sahjhan stepped back and threw some powder at the statue. "One shall awaken in the first year of the final century. That one, who lived before and joined Cod-she in the great sleep. Arise, as was promised and foretold. Arise. - Arise!"

Nothing happened. The demon turned away and walked over to one of the fires and lit himself a cigarette. Turning back to watch the statue, puffing, he checked his watch and took another drag from the cigarette.

Suddenly the room began to shake and blue lighting flashed. The eyes of the statue suddenly turned into two open, human looking eyes. The statue cracked and then crumbled to the ground in a cloud of dust.

The demon put out his cigarette and walked over to the figure huddled in the middle of what was left of the statue. "Welcome to the twenty first century." He said to the figure. He crouched down and put a hand on its back. "Angelus is here. You'll see him soon. You haven't used your muscles in a very long time. It will be a while before you're strong enough to..."

The figure suddenly straightened up, making the demon stop talking. He revealed himself as a middle-aged man with half long hair and a beard and moustache. It's Holtz. "Just tell me where he is."

OOO

_Yes my friends, it's Holtz, the evil fiend from Angel's past. So I guess you'll have to know who he is, you know from episodes such as Offspring and Quickening from Angel (season 3)…But for those who haven't seen those episodes, or just don't know who Holtz is, I'll give a reaaaally short summary: Darla and Angelus killed Holtz's wife and kids in the 18th century, and so Holtz was really angry and did a sort of spell/deal thingy with Sahjhan, the demon, so he was turned into a stone so he…I don't really know the exact details about that part, let's just say, he's angry and back for revenge._

_So please review and tell me what you think!_


	10. Chapter 10

_Man, did it ever took me long to finish this chapter! I don't know, I guess writing the whole evil fiend thing is kinda hard for me…oh well. I'm really sorry for delaying you guys, it'll…probably happen again, and I apologize for that too! Hope you enjoy the chapter though!_

_OOOO_

"We should...really be...patrolling now." Buffy said in between kisses. "Evil vampire gang...on the loose." In contradiction to her words she clutched Angel closer, if possible, and continued ravishing his mouth with hers.

"You're right...important." Angel managed to get out. They very reluctantly pulled apart and looked around. "There's nothing here." He announced without as much as half a glimpse at their surroundings before pulling Buffy back into his embrace and they started the make-out fest again.

As Angel gently pressed her against the wall of a mausoleum, Buffy was reminded of a time long ago where she and Angel had been in this stage. A time that was hard to remember, because that year was overshadowed by the nightmare that was Angelus. Not once after that had Buffy felt as comfortable and happy with Angel as she had right before it. Now, here in the cemetery with Angel, Buffy couldn't help but notice that at last they had reached that stage again, and even gone beyond it. Now they had the knowledge that they could go into their lives together without the ever present vampire/slayer issue. Also, the amazing sex was definitely a plus.

And there was nothing that Buffy hated more than being interrupted by stupid vampires during her quality time with Angel. Even if they were supposed to be patrolling. With an apologising look at Angel she turned around and went for the attack. After a few quick kicks and punches the vampire was dust. She straightened herself and patted some of the dust of her clothes. "Well, that certainly was a mood killer."

Angel smiled. "Well we really should be patrolling for this gang anyway."

"Yeah I guess." They started walking hand in hand. Buffy looked up at Angel. "What's up?" She asked when she saw his pensive face.

"Nothing. I was just thinking. You know how you're moving into your dorm room in a few days, right, and I was thinking…how 'bout you don't?"

"Don't what? Don't move in there?" Buffy asked with a frown. "Well I can't exactly stay with my mom, it's too far away from campus and –"

Angel stopped walking and gave her a meaningful look. "I _meant_, how about you move in with me?"

"Really?" Buffy asked with wide eyes. "You really want me to move in with you?" There was awe in her voice; she'd never really thought of their future together actually starting. She'd always dreamed and hoped of them living their lives together, in the same house, possibly even married, but to have it actually happening was something she'd never truly considered.

"I wouldn't have asked if I didn't." He said with a gentle smile.

She flashed him a wide, giddy grin before jumping in his arms and kissing him passionately. Angel backed his head away after a while to look at her. "So, that's a yes?"

"Yes! Of course, what'd you think it was, me running away in horror? Of course I wanna move in with you!" She pressed her lips to his again, and they were once again lost in a passionate kiss.

So lost they didn't even notice the two vampires creeping up on them. Or one other bleached blonde vampire, coming to stand behind them and getting his stake ready. "Hate to interrupt the love birds in wha's clearly a very touchin' moment," He said, voice dripping with sarcasm, while he tried not to let the jealousy he felt slip through. "But in case you hadn't noticed, there's two ugly lookin' vamps behind you."

Both sighing in annoyance, Buffy and Angel quickly pulled apart and got into fighting stance.  
Buffy easily took care of the two vampires with little to no help from the two men, who stood by and enjoyed watching Buffy move.

Just as a third vampire crept up on Buffy and she was about to strike, Spike decided to jump in. He hit the vamp a few times more than necessary before he plunged the stake into his heart. With a smirk on his face he turned to Buffy, hoping for once she was a little grateful for his help.

"Damnit Spike! That's the second time in two nights you stole my vampire, what the hell do you think you're doing?" She asked angrily. Everything about him annoyed her, especially the way he had been acting lately. Pretending to be helping her while he just got in the way, obviously to pester her.

The smirk on his face died down, and a look of indignation took its place. "Wha's it look like I'm doing, I helped you out! Clearly you were unprepared for that vamp, so I stepped up. If anything, I believe thanks are in order."

Buffy groaned in frustration. "I don't need your help, I never need your help! You know what, just stay out of my way – _especially_, when I'm patrolling!"

He snorted. "Right, patrolling." He said in a mocking tone. "Feelin' up Captain Forehead here, in the middle of the cemetery, leavin' you vulnerable to all sorts o' nasties. Right, my mistake, next time I won't bother." With one last glance at Buffy he stalked off.

Buffy turned to look at Angel with an incredulous look on her face. "God! He's getting more and more irritating every time I see him."

"Right." Angel said as he watched Spike moving further and further away. Something about the way he'd seen Spike look at Buffy didn't seem right. There'd been something in his eyes…hope? Desire? Whatever it was, it bothered Angel. Maybe he needed to have a little chat with his Grandchilde.

OOOO

"Oh my god, Buffy!" Willow said with an excited grin, as she raised her voice enough to hear over the loud music at the Bronze. "That's so great, I'm really happy for you!" She gave her best friend a quick hug over the table.

Buffy looked at Xander with an expectant smile, which he returned. "Well I think congrats are in order, right Buff?" He too gave her a hug and smiled at her warmly. "You deserve it Buffy, you really do…Unless of course, you're not happy about it, in which case –"

"Xander." Buffy said warningly, but she knew he was only teasing.

Willow sipped her coke happily as she watched Buffy's elated face. She put the drink down. "You know," She started slyly. "if things keep up this way, maybe there'll be wedding bells in the near future."

Buffy turned to her with wide eyes. "You think so?"

"Well of course! I mean, you plan on spending the rest of your life with him anyway, right? So it's bound to happen."

Buffy nodded. "Yeah, if I live to see the rest of my life that is." She said, not wanting the get her hopes up too much, when she, being the Slayer, couldn't plan too far ahead in her life, since death could come out of every unexpected corner.

"Buffy! Don't say that!" Willow said upset. "You're not gonna die any time soon."

"Yeah Buffy, you got us, watching your back. And Angel. And possibly, if we pay him enough, Spike. So you got enough people helping ya with the slayage." Xander said.

Buffy sighed. "I know. It's just…It's going really well, like, to the extend of extremely. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, you know? Things with my life tend not to stay good for too long of an extended time period."

"Well not with that attitude, no!"

"Sorry, it's just that I always assumed I wasn't gonna live the happily ever after, being the Slayer and all."

Willow put on her resolve face. "Well, from now on, you're going to assume the exact opposite here missy, you are going to assume that you'll live to be a hundred and ten, with a bunch of fat grand children and smelly cats to boot!" Her expression softened somewhat. "coz, you know, if you keep expecting the worst, you'll never live your life to the fullest, you know? And, even _if_ you die young, and I'm not saying you will, at least you'll have had a happy life."

Buffy smiled at that. "You're right, Will."

"And besides, a happy Slayer is a safe Slayer. If you walk around being depressed all the time, you'll have nothing to fight for." Xander chipped in, earning an elbow in the stomach from Willow. "What?"

OOOO

Holtz entered the appointed, empty looking building, feeling a bit strange from the ride in that so-called 'car'. He looked around the dark room he was now standing in, before he turned to Sahjhan. "Alright, we are here. Now where are they?"

The demon sighed. "I just drove two hours straight from LA to Sunnydale, give a fellow some time to rest."

Holtz stepped up to him with a menacing look. "Where. Are. They?" He ground out.

"It's not that simple."

"I'm tired of waiting!" He exclaimed, and reached out to grab the demon, but his hand went straight through him. Confused, he pulled back and looked at him.

"Like I said - it's not that simple. Do you think I'd go through all this trouble of transporting you two and a half centuries if I could walk up to Angelus and stake him myself? Please! There are rules and timetables and forces at work far greater than either of us. Boy, you vengeful types aren't real good at playing with others, are you?" Sahjhan passed his hands along the sides of his head and his face turned into that of a human. "It's my street face. Now come on. I've lined up some men to help us."

They went outside again and started walking in the direction of one of the more dingier parts of the town. "I hope these men you've hired are ruthless bastards." Holtz said.

"Of course, plenty of those to go around here in Sunnydale." They walked into an alley and up to a metal door, and Sahjhan knocked on it. "Go away!" A low voice growled from the other side of the door.

"It's Sahjhan." He said, and turned to Holtz. "This is where we'll get your men. Very exclusive."

They came into a club where a group of gray-skinned demons with tusks were training and fighting each other. One pair was fighting viciously in a ring. "These aren't men." Holtz remarked.

"Once again: gender - not species. I should have said 'minions.' Have you seen Grappler demons fight? - Not the sharpest pencils in the box, but merciless in battle." He turned to the demons, raising his voice to get their attention. "Okay, guys! Over here! Time to meet the new Jefe. And Flarmar, leave the head in the ring, okay?"

Flarmar, one of the demons in the ring, grunted and dropped the head he'd ripped of his opponent earlier.

"Ready to command your troops, captain?" Sahjhan asked Holtz.

"Any other surprises I should know about?" Was all he asked. He wasn't exactly used to seeing demons like these, all he knew were vampires, but he knew right away that they would definitely come in handy for his revenge against Angelus and Darla.

OOOO

Buffy and Angel walked hand in hand through the park, watching the sunset. They had started packing all Buffy's stuff for the move-in. It had been a tiresome task, since Buffy packed and unpacked just about every box at least twice, since she wanted to have all her stuff in exactly the right box. So now, despite the almost five hour long work, they were nearly halfway.

"Still think it's unfair Xander wouldn't help us pack. I mean, Willow and Tara I understand, since they have their own place to move into, but Xander's not going anywhere! Or Anya, for that matter." Buffy complained half-heartedly as they walked in a slow pace.

"Well maybe they've seen you pack."

"Hey, it's not _that_ bad."

Angel smiled down on her. "Right. You know, I might as well not have helped you either, since you repacked everything I packed."

Buffy mock-pouted. "Meany. Besides, you _had_ to help, coz it's your apartment I'm moving into. And while we are on that subject, is your place even big enough for my stuff? I mean, it is big, what with the two stories and all, but I have a lot of stuff."

He pretended to think this through. "You're right, you do have an awful lot of stuff. Maybe we should throw some of it away." He said, receiving a playful slap on his arm from Buffy.

"Okay, don't even joke about that!" She said with a smile. She leaned in a gave his lips a soft kiss, before they started to walk again.

"Think we should patrol?"

"Yeah, not too long though, I have to meet up with my mom later."

OOOO

Angel entered his apartment, feeling a little sore from the encounter he had with the edge of a headstone after being kicked by a vampire. He threw the keys on the table by the door and switched on the lights.

Immediately he saw the dozen or so demons filling his spacious living room, all coming at him at once. He tried to fight them off as well as he could, but soon he found himself trapped by the arms and neck by some sort of metal clamps on the ends of long sticks. He tried to struggle free, but the grip was too tight.

He heard footsteps from behind him. "Angelus." A male voice said. "I've been looking for you." The man walked slowly around him until he was fully into view.

Angel gasped in shock, instantly recognizing the man before him. "Holtz." He whispered.

OOOO

_Okay, it's not very long…but what do you think? Sucky? Good? Let me know please!_


	11. Chapter 11

_- ducks head shamefully – Eh…hey guys, remember me? So, anyone who wants to kill me, do it please, I deserve it for leaving you guys waiting like this. I mean, how long has it been? Months? Years? I can't even remember. I'm horrible. HORRIBLE! And I FINNALLLYYY got around to writing this stupid chapter, it realllly took me forever…but I guess you guys know that, and I don't even know why, since half of it is like, taken from an Angel episode…_

_I guess, it's mostly because I can't really get into the whole Angel character anymore. All these stupid Spuffy stories I keep reading keep making me Hate Angel, even though he's usually characterized completely wrong just because they hate him…and even though I love Spuffy, I love Bangel as well! I just like Spuffy because Spike is like you know, all bad boy-ish and all, but I love Bangel, because it's just so romantic and everytime I watch those episodes I'm like …-deep sigh- they soooo belong together! Best episode ever is I will remember you…except from the end…_

_Uh, anyway, here's the LONG awaited chapter!_

_OOOO_

Angel was staring at the man in front of him with wide eyes, unable to believe he was actually here. "Holtz," He repeated. "You – how? What could have brought you here –"

"You did." Holts interrupted him with menace, although his expression didn't change from icily calm, his voice betrayed exactly how he felt. "You and your demon bitch. For two hundred years I slept. For two hundred years – I dreamt of nothing but this moment." He raised a sword and pressed it against Angel's throat.

"Which would explain why look so well rested." Angel flippantly commented, trying to pretend he wasn't at all fazed by this.

Holtz shook his head slightly as he pulled the sword back. "You haven't changed."

"Actually, I have. While you were sleeping a lot changed." Angel said, and gasped a little as one of the Grappler demons tugged at the trap around his neck.

"Really?" Holtz replied unconvinced. He pulled out a small bottle and threw the liquid in it at Angel's face, causing his face to morph momentarily into demonface. "Somehow things seem the same to me."

"You're wrong." Angel gasped, despite the fact the he was greatly surprised at the stinging sensation on his face. Holy water! But how could it still affect him? He'd tried holding crosses, and that went just fine, no pain, so why…his thoughts were interrupted when Holtz put the sword back at his throat.

"I _will _have justice." He hissed.

"No. I don't think you will. There is no justice for the things I did to you." Angel said, filled once again with sorrow for one of the more horrible things he'd done in his past.

"You didn't do them to me. And you didn't do them alone." Was all Holtz said before he turned away to address the demons that weren't holding Angel. "Find the female. If he's here, Darla can't be far." He turned back to Angel. "Or are you going to tell me _that's_ changed too?"

Ignoring his question, Angel tried to find out exactly how Holtz had managed to come back after two hundred years. "You're still human. How'd you manage this?"

"So, the question becomes - now that I have you - what's the best way to get her?" Holtz asked, not expecting an answer as he, too, ignored what Angel was saying, and admired some of the weapons lying carelessly one top of a weapon chest.

"Only dark magics could have brought you this far."

"She was always the trick, you know, not you. Darla was the unpredictable one."

They continued talking on, both not responding to each others questions or remarks, until Angel started speaking of Holtz's soul, and he briefly wondered if the vicious vampire had indeed changed, but quickly discarded the notion. He backhanded Angel across the face before leaning in on him menacingly. "Are you still concerned about my soul, Angelus? My vampire priest?"

Suddenly there was some commotion outside the apartment, sounds of struggle were heard, when one of the Grappler entered. "Excuse me." Holtz said and walked over to receive the demon's report. He then turned back to Angel. "She came. Good. Bring her in."

Angel watched with anticipation as the Grappler demons started to pull in their captive, having a pretty good idea of who they might have. "Buffy." He breathed, his fear realized.

Buffy stopped struggling to get free from the demons when she heard his voice, and looked up to see Angel being held captive by the same demons that were holding her. "Angel!" She cried, and once more started trying to break free, but the hold of the three strong demons on her was too great.

"This isn't her." Holtz said and walked over to her and threw some holy water in her face without result except for an extra grumpy slayer. "She's not even a vampire."

"Gee, ya think!" Buffy bit back angrily. Whoever these guys were, they were going to be _so_ dead.

"Buffy, are you alright, did they hurt you?" Angel asked, and Holtz's head shot up at hearing the strange concern coming from the vampire.

"I'm fine. Would you mind explaining what the hell is going on? If you don't let him – or me, for that matter – go very quickly, I'm going to get very testy." She told Holtz in her most threatening voice.

"I'll let him go when he's dead." He answered calmly. He looked from the girl to Angelus and could see they were both greatly concerned for the other. "Who are you?"

"I'm the Slayer." Was all Buffy said.

Holtz narrowed his eyes. "The Slayer." He repeated, and took a step closer to her. "Tell me then Slayer, do you know what he is? What he's done?"

"Yeah I know! He's my boyfriend, and I know what _I'm_ going to do if you don't let us go very soon!"

"Wrong, Slayer. He is a vampire, a ruthless, sadistic one at that, the kind you, I believe, are destined to slay."

"No, _you're_ wrong, buddy! He's not a vampire anymore, _and_ he has a soul."

Holtz narrowed his eyes, his expression suddenly becoming even more dark than it was before. "You lie." He said. "I saw what he is, his face changed. He is the same beast he's ever been." When Buffy didn't reply, but kept glaring at him in a defiant way, he pursed his lips in determination and stalked up to Angelus and snatched his arm. He searched out the pulse point in his wrist and was about to call out his triumph at the annoying Slayer when he felt the steady thrumming of a heartbeat. As though burned, he dropped the arm and looked at the apparent ex-vampire in shock.

"Tell me Angelus, exactly what are you now?" He asked, his voice sounding as calm and composed as ever.

Angel stared Holtz in the eye, knowing he had to answer this truthfully or he'd probably kill him. Or try his damned hardest to do so. He just hoped that knowing he had a soul would stop this man from extracting his vengeance. "I'm not exactly sure. All I know is that I'm not a vampire anymore, but I'm not entirely human either. And I've had a soul for a hundred years now."

Holtz of course showed almost none of his shock on his face. He contemplated the meaning of what he was just told as he looked from Angelus to the Slayer. All he knew was this, the revenge he was planning on would have to be altered. He needed time. Time to find out more about these two, what was important to them, how to hurt Angelus the most. He gave the demons holding them a signal to let them go and left the room. His time would still come.

OOOO

The minute the man and the demons had left the apartment, Buffy rushed to Angel's side, who was rubbing his sore throat. "Angel are you okay? Who was that man?"

"Holtz. He was…I knew him, almost two hundred years ago. I…I killed his family, turned his daughter into a vampire." Buffy looked down. "He must've found a way to come back somehow. And he wants vengeance."

"So why did he let you go?"

Angel shook his head. "I'm not sure. What I do know is that he's not letting this go, and why should he. He'll be back."

OOOO

Back at the deserted apartment Holtz was pacing in barely oppressed agitation and confusion. "You knew. You knew and you didn't tell me." He told Sahjhan accusingly.

"Okay! So I left out one teeny weeny little detail. It didn't seem all that important."

"Not important? Angelus with a soul? Not even a vampire anymore?"

"It doesn't mean anything!"

"It means everything."

"See? This is _why_ I didn't mention it. So Angel has a soul. So he's half human. Big whoop! So was Attila the Hun! Not to mention a heart as big as all outdoors when it came to gift giving. He is _still_ the same guy! Angel, not Attila."

"He's not the same."

"Of course he is! His hair is a little shorter, a little spikier. He's using product. But it's the same guy."

Holtz shook his head. "No. He's changed. He's - different."

Sahjhan sighed exasperated. "Look. I don't know what kind of moral mind games you've been torturing yourself with, but can't let this soul thing get in the way of what you swore to do."

"Get in the way?" Holtz asked him as if what he was suggesting was ludicrous. It was the exact opposite.

"That's what this is about, right? You find out Angel's slightly more human and has a soul, now you're wondering if things are a little murkier - ethically speaking."

"Things have never been clearer. Releasing his soul to suffer for all eternity only makes his destruction more just, more fitting."

Sahjhan paused for a bit, relieved. "Oh. Well, then what's the problem?"

"You've had me hunting the wrong prey."

If he wasn't himself, and if he did the whole laughing thing, he'd be grinning evilly about now. "Ah! Right. Because an Angel with a soul is going to be a slightly different challenge from an Angel without a soul."

Holtz took a step closer, as if he was in a hurry. "I must know everything."

"Right. No, gotcha. My mistake."

"I especially must know about this girl. The Slayer." Holtz said. He had a feeling that the girl was important to Angelus somehow.

"Ah. Uh, not a lot I can tell ya about her."

"Then I will study her. And him. I will find out what he cares about most. And then destroy it."

OOOO

Of course research had been all around after the attack. Angel was still somewhat in shock after seeing Holtz, unable to fathom how he could have come back. But the hours of looking turned out fruitless, there being a tiny possibility of some kind of prophecy (wasn't there always?), but the text in which that was more or less detailed had been lost for centuries.

So life continued, as it tended to do. Angel and Buffy kept a weary eye out, being on their guard for whenever Holtz would suddenly come and get his revenge. But as the days passed, and nothing happened, they started to relax somewhat. Up until Joyce got sick. Buffy was certain there was something behind it, and did a spell, but nothing could have prepared her for what came out of it.

"I just can't believe it." Buffy uttered for what seemed like the thousandth time that night, while she and Angel walked home after having talked to Giles about Dawn.

"Neither can I." Angel said gravely. "I mean, I still remember the first time I saw her. I was hidden in the closet in your room, and she came sneaking in, rummaging about your stuff, and reading your diary with this sneaky little grin on her face. I can't imagine her not even being there all this time."

"My diary?! I knew that wasn't mom cleaning up! That little...she's _always_ going through my stuff! Except…she's not. At least not until a few months ago…" She leaned her head against Angel's shoulder in misery. He leaned in and kissed her head. "But she's still my sister. She'll _always_ be my sister, no matter what some stupid ass monks say. And I'll protect her from Glory. With all I have."

Angel wrapped his arms around her. "Not alone. I'll always be there for you. You and Dawn. You know that right?"

She looked up at him and smiled. "Of course I know." She leaned in and they kissed sweetly. She sighed as the pulled apart and rested her head on his chest. "I can't imagine what I'd do without you." She mumbled.

"Same here." Angel replied softly, gently stroking her hair.

Neither of them noticed that dark figure standing in the shadows, listening with interest to every word they were saying. He was coming up with a plan. A plan that would ensure great pain to not only Angel, but to Buffy as well, for she deserved it as much as he did if she could be with a creature like him, knowing exactly what he'd done. He narrowed his eyes and smirked evilly as he saw them walking away. He would have his revenge soon…

OOOO

_Okay, so…I hope you all weren't greatly disappointed by this. I mean, I let you wait for..so long…and then come with this! Short! Cheesy! And I'm not going to promise anything, for I am the worst writer ever, coz I write suuuper slowly and update like once a month, if I'm lucky!! So…please review and tell me what you thought of this loooong overdue chapter!_


	12. Chapter 12

_Hiya fella's, I'm finally back with the next chapter. Sorry for the wait, RL is kinda busy at the moment…  
BTW, some people have been asking about Cordy and Doyle, and I'm sorry to say that they won't be making a reappearance in this story. I know I made it seem like they were going to move back to SD, but despite how much I love 'em, I found I just don't have a place for them in the story. So, Sorry for that.  
_

_Some (or a lot) lines borrowed from _Fool For Love_. Enjoy!_

oooo 

"You know, it's probably none of my business but I just gotta ask…" Buffy started and punched a vampire dressed like a Van Halen reject to the ground. The vampire lunged at her and she backhanded him. "You smell this bad when you were alive?" She kicked the vampire into a headstone. "'Cause if it's a post-mortem thing, then boy, is my face red..." She flipped him over the headstone and whipped out a stake. "But just so you know, the fast-growing field of personal grooming has come a long way since you became a vampire." Buffy made a somersault over the headstone, stake raised and ready to strike. But suddenly the vampire seized her arm as she landed, spun her around and plunged the stake into Buffy's abdomen. Her eyes went wide with shock and pain as she looked down at the stake protruding from her body.

She gripped the shaft and, with a gasp of pain, pulled it out, blood soaking her sweater. For the first time in a long time, Buffy felt fear. She turned around and broke out in a run, but her wound slowed her down and it was more of a stumble. Frightfully she kept looking back to see if the vampire followed her, when suddenly he jumped in front of her. "You're going? But you were having so much fun a minute ago!" He said tauntingly.

The vamp easily knocked the stake from her hand and tossed her against a nearby crypt. Buffy doubled over in pain as the vampire picked up her stake and started approaching with a predatory grin.

Buffy closed her eyes. She couldn't believe this was it, she was going to die. And by the hands a smelly, badly dressed vampire! It's not as if she'd thought she'd live to see her midlife crisis, but she hadn't expected it to be this soon.

The vampire raised the stake, ready to make the final blow, when suddenly he was tackled to the ground by Angel. He started raining blows on the vampire, but was knocked back and the vampire took off. Angel immediately turned his attention to Buffy, rushing to her side. "Buffy! What happened?" He asks concerned, as she sits panting against the crypt.

Buffy raised her trembling hands, which were covered in blood, before she collapsed in Angel's arms.

oooo

Holtz sat down in the easy chair, looking pensive. "The preparations are almost finished," he said, his voice not revealing how pleased he was with this fact.

Sahjahn sighed as he paced the room. "I have to say, not too happy about this plan of yours. The deal was: I bring you back, you _kill_ Angelus, emphasis on the word kill."

"If I kill Angelus it would be over far too soon for him. I want him to suffer. Him and that demon-loving Slayer of his," Holtz explained calmly.

"Yeah but who says separating them in this way'll make 'em suffer? Who knows, maybe they'll be happy to be rid of each other!"

Holtz stood up and looked at Sahjahn. "Don't be a fool. You have seen as well as I have that they need each other," He walked over to where a bunch of monitors were stacked up, all of them playing different images of Angel, or him and Buffy together. "Yes, I am certain this will make him suffer the most." He turned back to Sahjahn. "I have considered physical torture, yes, but it would be short lived for him, and over much too soon. You forget that emotional pain is often much worse than physical."

Sahjahn rolled his eyes. "Fine, whatever. But only because I want to see Angel's reaction when he wakes up _there_."

oooo

"Here's another one," Giles said when he looked up from his book. "Early 18th century Slayer." He and Buffy had been reading into the Watcher's Diaries for a few hours now, trying to find some sort of answer for why all the Slayers died as young as they did.

Buffy closed her book with a sigh and put it on the large stack of already-read books. "Good. Let's hope she'll be more helpful than this last one."

"Why? What does it say?"

Buffy shrugged, "Same as all the others. Slayer called, blah blah, great protector, blah blah, scary battles, blah blah, oops - She's dead. Where are the details?"

"Details?" Giles looked into his book, "Well, it says this Slayer forged her own weapons." He handed the book to Buffy, who looked at the picture.

"Gotta love a gal with an anvil. But where are the details of the Slayer's last battle? You know, what made that fight special – why did she lose?"

"You didn't lose last night, Buffy. You just-"

"Got really close." Giles frowned. "I slipped up, Giles. I've been training harder than ever and still I …And there's nothing in any of these books to help me understand why. I mean…look, I realize that every Slayer comes with an expiration mark on the package. But I want mine to be a long time from now. Like a Cheeto. If there were just a few good descriptions of what took out the other Slayers, maybe it would help me to understand my mistake, to keep it from happening again."

Giles sighed, the topic of conversation not being exactly his favorite one. He hated thinking of Buffy dying any time soon. "Yes, well, the problem is after a final battle, it's difficult to get any…well, the Slayer's not…she's rather…"

"It's okay to use the D-word, Giles."

"Dead. And hence not very forthcoming."

"Why didn't the Watchers keep fuller accounts of it? The journals just stop."

"Well, I suppose if they're anything like me, they just find the whole subject too-"

"Unseemly? Damn. Love ya, but you Watchers are such prigs sometimes."

Giles frowned, honestly, did she really still think of him as a stuffy, heartless Watcher, straight from the Council factory? "Painful…I was going to say." Buffy looked up at him, understanding what he meant. "But you're right. Accounts of the final battles would be very helpful." He looked up at Buffy. "Well what about Angel?"

"Angel?" Buffy asked with a raised eyebrow. "I'm not even sure he _has_ ever killed a Slayer in his day, I mean we never read anything about it. And even if he has, I don't think he'd be willing to share all the glorious details, which is kind of what I could use right now."

They fell silent for a moment, until Buffy suddenly looked up, struck with realization.

"What?"

oooo

"Ow!" Spike grunted as Buffy shoved him against the wall in his crypt. "Wait. Now ow. You feeling all right Slayer? This stuff usually hurts."

Buffy spun him around and he grinned, curling his tongue behind his teeth. "Don't even start, Spike."

"What do you want?"

"Slayers. You killed two of them."

Spike eyed her warily. "I did."

"You're gonna show me how."

oooo

Angel stalked the cemetery with one goal in mind. Revenge. He made his way towards the mausoleum he'd found out belonged to the vampire that had tried to kill Buffy.

"…they ought to put this in a museum!" he heard the vampire brag as he come closer. He kicked the door in and started a full on attack right away, deciding to forgo the whole punning thing. Okay, so he was aware of the foolishness of rushing head-first into a nest of at least four vampires, but that didn't matter right now.

What mattered was that the pain the vamp had caused to his Buffy was repaid with its life.

-

A while later Angel made his way into his apartment. He winced as he stretched his bruised arm, reminding himself once again that even though he still had a lot of his vampire strength left, he wasn't as strong as he used to be.

He turned on the lights, and frowned when he noticed Buffy still hadn't come home. He knew she'd been researching with Giles, but shouldn't they have finished long ago?

oooo

"Oh... did I scare ya?" Spike asked as he took a step closer to Buffy. "You're the Slayer. Do something about it. Hit me." He bounced on the balls of his feet as he tried to goad her into laying her hands on him, even if it was just a punch. "Come on. One good swing. You know you want to."

Buffy swallowed hard, not wanting to believe the truth of what Spike had told her. "I mean it."

"So do I. Give it me good, Buffy. Do it!"

"Spike..."

Spike couldn't take it; being this close to her, the way she was looking at him all panting and heaving. He leant in to kiss her, but she quickly backed away in horror.

"What the hell are you doing?"

He grabbed her by the arms, trying to mask what he'd really intended. "Come on. I can feel it, Slayer. You know you want to dance," he said, the words coming out in a breathless pant.

"Say it's true. Say I do want to…" She shoved him to the ground and looked down at him in disgust. "It wouldn't be you, Spike. It would _never_, be you." The wad of cash she'd promised him was thrown contemptuously at him. "You're beneath me."

With those words Buffy turned around and stormed back into the Bronze, never noticing the tears that Spike tried to keep at bay. Nor the murderous glare he threw her way after that.

oooo

Spike trotted down the street in an angry pace, the shotgun tightly clutched in his hand. "Bitch's gonna get what's comin' to her," he muttered to himself. He rounded to corner into the street where Buffy and the Poof lived. "Bloody Dru didn't know what she was talkin' about," he growled when he thought back to what she'd said back in Brazil.

He stopped short when he saw someone coming through the door of the place he was heading to. Angel. He narrowed his eyes, maybe he should just kill the poof while he was at it. God knows he deserved it. Besides, he could hurt that wanker all he wanted without the chip going off.

He smirked; a new plan formed where he first killed Angel, and then taunted Buffy with it before he killed her. He was about to go and do that, when he suddenly saw a group of demons sneaking in on Angel before one of them knocked him unconscious. Spike quickly hid himself in the shadows and watched as two of the demons dragged him up by the arms. One seemed the give the rest directions, and they all headed off in the opposite direction to where Angel had been heading.

Part of Spike was contemplating whether or not he should get Buffy, but he was also curious to know what was going on. So he followed them.

He figured this type of demons wasn't exactly the brightest of them all, for the group was just walking down the street, dragging an unconscious Angel along with them. Not exactly discreet, if you asked him.

After about five minutes they reached the woods, where they kept going for a while until reaching a clearance where Spike could see a few more of the same demons waiting, as well as a middle-aged man and another strange looking fellow. The latter appeared to be preparing some sort of ritual.

Angel was dropped unceremoniously to the ground in front of the two men who appeared to be in charge.

"What now?" The long haired freak asked.

"We wait for the Slayer to arrive." The old guy said calmly as he looked at Angel in contempt.

"Yeah, but what's to say she'll actually show up?" The freak seemed to be agitated.

"She'll come. And she'll watch."

Spike waited for them to say more, but they remained silent. He rolled his eyes; he didn't even want the poofter saved. But there he went, turning around and hurrying to the Slayer's house to get her.

oooo

Buffy was pacing the back porch of her mom's home, where she'd gone to check in after sharing the evening with Spike. And oh, how she wished she hadn't. She'd known, to some extent, that she'd be getting some disturbing and gory details about her predecessors. But she hadn't been ready for what Spike had told her. Mostly because she knew it could be true.

She didn't want to die, of course. She wanted to live to be a hundred-and-ten with great-grand children scattered around the world. But every time she fought, a part of her was ready to accept that she could die. And what had scared her was that this was a part of why the other Slayers had died. And that this could possibly happen to her.

God she wanted to punch that guy. Stupid bleached vampire asshole guy. No way would she _ever_ give him the satisfaction of letting him kill her. She'd die first…er, okay, rephrase that, pigs wearing tutu's would be flying first.

And to think she'd wasted her hard-earned money on him! She huffed. The next time she saw him she'd –

Her inner rant was interrupted by the object of her frustrations running towards her. He came to a halt, seemingly out of breath, which was weird since he didn't have to breathe. "Slayer."

Buffy rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "What are you doing here?" She asked, making her voice sound as annoyed as possible.

"There's trouble. Group of tough lookin' demons knocked your boy over the head an' kidnapped 'im." Spike gritted his teeth at the immediate alarm that crossed Buffy's features.

"Angel? Where'd they take him?" She demanded.

"A clearing in the woods, but! –" he quickly grabbed her arm to stop her from running of immediately. "Love, there were 'bout six or seven of these demons, and two other guys, an' they looked pretty strong. Might wanna bring some back up, they said they were waitin' for you."

Buffy's jaw set in determination. "Fine, then you'll come with." She hurried into the house, only to return moments later with two axes in her hand, one of which she handed to Spike. "Lead the way."

Despite the cold and business-like attitude, Buffy felt fear gripping at her as she followed Spike's hurried paces to where they'd taken Angel. What were they doing to him? She was starting to get a pretty good idea of who was behind this, and she had the frightening feeling something very bad was about to happen.

oooo

_Oooh what's going to happen??? I'm so excited and I already know! Tell me what you think!_


	13. Chapter 13

_Wow, has it been that long? Ahem, yah…I'm sooooooo sorry!!! RL, vacation, semi-writers-block-ish, etc…_

_BTW, I seem to have lost a whole bunch of readers after chapter ten. I'm guessing this is because of Holtz, and maybe people thought there'd be the whole Connor debacle, but I swear, there is NO Connor! I mean, I thought it was pretty clear that Buffy is nowhere near pregnant? Anyway, not sure y'all will like what my version of the Holtz thing is like, but this had been my plan pretty much from the beginning of this story._

_Anyhow, on with the story (finally!)_

**oooo**

As they reached the clearing in the woods, the first thing Buffy saw was a whole bunch of the demons that had attacked Angel and her at their apartment. Her eyes widened when she saw Angel lying unconscious in a circle, with some weird guy standing next to him, chanting. "What are they doing?" She half whispered, not taking her eyes off the scene before her as she addressed Spike.

"Don't rightly know, but it looks like a ritual of some kind."

Buffy rolled her eyes, "Thank you Captain Obvious." She sighed, her tone once again turning worried. "There's so many of them."

-

One of the demons made his way to the two men in charge. "She's here," He growled and indicated the direction of where the Slayer was standing covered behind some large bushes.

Holtz nodded and dismissed the demon before turning to Sahjhan, who was preparing the ritual, standing in front of the circle in which Angel was lying. "It's time," he said.

-

"What's going on?" Buffy asked when the ritual suddenly turned more intense, large electric crackles shooting through the air around Angel. "We have to go, now! Can you try to take care of the demons while I get Angel? I think we don't have much time before they do whatever they're planning," She told Spike, not even bothering to question why Spike was helping her in the first place. There would be time for that after they'd saved Angel.

Without waiting for an answer she started running towards the scene, Spike right behind her. With a racing heart she saw that the ritual was nearing its end; the chanting grew louder and the demon performing the ritual was waving his arms wildly while clutching some kind of amulet. Ignoring the sound of fighting behind her, she ran as fast as she could. _So close, almost there!_ Was the only thought running through her mind.

Before she knew what was happening she was lying on the ground, a sharp pain shooting from her jaw. She jumped up, not even bothering to retain her dropped axe and tried to run passed the demon that had attacked her, but she was grabbed by her hair and yanked back. Right before she was thrown to the ground she saw that now a large portal had opened right in front of where Angel was lying. Fiery sparks were crackling from the portal, catching the grass on fire.

She jumped up and punched the demon as hard as she could and began running again. She was overcome with a large wave of panic when she saw that the ritual-demon handed the amulet to the man she recognized as Holtz and he hoisted Angel up. "No!" She cried unbidden. Another demon came in her way but she kicked it away. Holtz was now walking towards the portal, carrying Angel.

She faintly heard her name being called behind her, but it didn't register. All she knew was that she had to get to Angel. Once again she was kicked to the ground by a demon behind her. As she tried to jump up she was kicked again. Finally she was able to get up and she turned around just in time to see Holtz stepping through the portal with Angel in his arms. "Angel!" She screamed as she ran forward, desperate to get to the portal. She took a giant leap, but just as she was centimetres away from jumping through the portal, it closed up and Buffy fell to the ground. Unwilling to believe what just happened she jumped up and frantically looked around, but there was not a trace left of either Holtz or Angel. She sank to the ground, gasping for breath. "no no no no…" She quietly mumbled, choking on her words. This wasn't happening. He was not gone. He couldn't be.

Spike stood up when the demon he was fighting suddenly stopped attacking and walked away, along with the rest of the group. He frowned in confusion. "Right then," He mumbled to himself. Turning he saw with wide eyes that suddenly the whole clearing was rapidly setting fire. "Buffy!" He yelled, looking around for her. He found her sitting on the ground, staring into space and breathing heavily. Making his way over to her he repeated her name, but there came no reply.

Taking in the area, he saw no sign of Angel and he reckoned whatever that ritual had been, it had worked. Which was probably why Buffy was now sitting catatonic on the ground. He gritted his teeth. "Buffy, luv, we need to get out of here, this whole place is in flames!" When he still got no response from her, he lurched forward and lifted her in his arms. She didn't even blink, so Spike took off in a run to get out of the woods before they were caught in the fire.

_o__ooo_

Spike kicked open the door of the Summers residence, still carrying a motionless Buffy. He called for Joyce as he made his way to the living room and gently placed Buffy on the couch. He crouched in front of her and brushed some hair from her face and tried to get her to look into his eyes, but she just gazed right passed him as if she wasn't aware of anything happening around her.

Joyce came into the living room and right away noticed the state her daughter was in. "My goodness, Buffy, what happened?" She squatted down beside Buffy on the couch and stroked her hair. Surprised when she got absolutely no reaction from her, Joyce looked questioning at Spike.

Spike told her what happened, saying he didn't know exactly what had happened, but that somehow Angel had disappeared and it had left Buffy in a catatonic-like state.

"Oh god, my poor little girl – oh, poor Angel! Where do you think he is Spike?" Joyce asked him with troubled eyes. Ever since Angel had turned up semi-human and capable of giving Buffy the kind of life she deserved, she had stopped looking at him as the vampire who would never be able to give Buffy anything, and started looking at him as her very possible future son-in-law. So now with this latest development was she not only worried about how badly this affected her daughter, but also about what would happen to Angel.

Spike shook his head. "Don't rightly know, Joyce. The portal I think he was sucked into looked pretty fiery and hell-like, so I reckon he's in some sort of Hell dimension."

"Oh god!"

Joyce's exclamation of horror seemed to work as the trigger to snap Buffy out of whatever catatonic coma she had going on. She blinked, looked at her mother and Spike before promptly bursting into tears.

oooo

Willow sighed as she dropped down at the table in the Magic Box. "It's been almost two weeks, I'm really worried about her."

"She's grieving, it – it's a process she has to go through. She'll come out when she's ready," Giles said, though his showed that he too was worried about his Slayer.

"She just sits there in that dark room, barely responding when you say something."

"Well at least she didn't take off to LA, like last time Angel got sent to a Hell-dimension," Xander said. "What?" He asked defensively when he received a glare from Willow. "I mean, I feel bad Angel's gone like that too, but I'm just saying…you know, at least she's still here." Anya patted him on the back in a way that said at least she understood what he meant.

"Couldn't we being him back somehow?" Willow raised hopeful eyes to Giles.

He removed his glasses and gave a hopeless shrug, "I've done research, but it's gotten me nowhere so far. The details Spike gave us of what happened weren't exactly…well, detailed. I'm afraid we need Buffy's account of it, but erm, she's been unable to speak of it."

"Plus there's also that woman that beat the crap out of Buffy that we have to research." Anya said.

oooo

It was a lucky coincidence that the next morning Buffy entered the Magic Box, looking pale but determined to get cracking at the research to get Angel back and get back to slaying, because they had an alien Queller demon that needed slaying. It had been an easy enough job. But then the dimension research had started, and even with Buffy's complete account of that night, and the details about the amulet that was used by Holtz, they were getting nowhere. Even Anya, with her extensive dimension knowledge couldn't tell much about it.

Research went on for a couple of days, and everyone noticed that despite her having come out of the solitude of her apartment – now solely _her_ apartment – she was still very quiet and reserved. She was pale, bags were forming under her eyes due to the lack of sleep she was getting. Even her hair was less bouncy that it was before.

After the whole ordeal with Willow and Anya accidentally summoning Olaf the troll, where buffy'd gone oddly weepy, she decided she needed to stop moping around, because she was certain they could return Angel no matter how long it took. So with new determination she kept on looking tenaciously all the while patrolling regularly. Which was really not all that regular, what with the Council coming over to test her and being attacked by knights and what turned out was a crazy Hell God.

Then her birthday came. Buffy had tried to be cheery and happy, but she'd only been extra depressed when'd realized this was her first birthday in Sunnydale without Angel. The night had officially turned bad when Dawn had entered the living room with her arm cut open, discovered her being the Key.

It was now almost six weeks since Angel had disappeared into the portal, and thought they didn't dare discuss this with Buffy or even each other, the Scoobies were starting to lose hope that they could ever bring him back.

But meanwhile, there was a new baddie in town and Dawn was missing, so Buffy was making her way to Spike's so he could help her look. She didn't really want to hang out with Spike, because every time the vampire was around, he was either oddly caring with her, or trying to get her mad because according to him, she'd become too emotionless since Angel. She guessed that was true, but she just didn't have the energy to show a lot of emotions since she still had trouble sleeping, being plagued with nightmares about Angel.

So where she'd normally stormed in with determination, she now opened the door in a regular way and walked into the crypt in a normal pace. She was about to call for the bleached vampire, when she saw him sitting on the sarcophagus across from…Dawn. Well, she didn't have to look for _her_ anymore. As she walked over, they were both watching her expectantly, waiting for the outburst.

"Spike was just telling this story, and he was just at this really cool part-" Dawn started protesting, but she was ignored by her sister who turned to Spike.

"Spike, would you mind telling me what Dawn is doing here?" Buffy asked, her voice only betraying with a little annoyance.

"I was just hanging out, Buffy." Dawn said, annoyed that Spike's scary story was being interrupted.

"At Spike's crypt," said Buffy in a disbelievingly monotone voice. Since when did her sister hang out with Spike?

Dawn sighed. "Could you please let him finish the story, then you can start the lecture?"

Buffy crossed her arms and sighed. "Fine." She turned to Spike and waited expectantly.

Spike, who had been looking at Buffy with his most earnest, yet slightly concerned face, was now slightly nervous. "Right, so uh, I knew the girl was in the coal bin…so I rip it open, very violently, haul 'er out of there, and uh…I gave her to good family, in a nice home, where they're never ever mean to her, and didn't lock her, in the coal bin."

"What?" Dawn asked disbelievingly. "That's so lame." She rolled her eyes when Spike only had eyes for Buffy. She just knew that wasn't the real end of the story, he just wanted to impress Buffy. Like she would ever notice anymore besides Angel. Who was probably never coming back.

"I was just about to send her home, I knew you'd be frettin'." Spike said with a step closer to her.

Buffy merely gave him a blank look and turned to Dawn, ignoring him. "Dawn get your stuffy, we're going."

Once outside, Dawn braced herself for the tirade, but when it didn't come, she decided this was not normal Buffy-behaviour so she just had to try to get a rise out of her. "You know, Spike's pretty cool."

"No he's not."

"Oh yeah, and really hot. Boy howdy do I want some of that."

"I'd appreciate it if you stopped talking now." Buffy walked faster to get away from the disturbing talk.

"He would never notice me anyway, not with you around."

Buffy stopped dead in her tracks and turned to her sister. "What does _that_ mean?"

"Spike's totally into you." Dawn said matter-of-factly, inwardly smirking at the look on her face. She just tattered at her with the most confused and unbelieving look. "Oh come on, you didn't notice?" She pretended to be exasperated. "Buffy, Spike's completely in love with you."

"…Huh?"

oooo

Buffy tried to ignore what Dawn had said and write it off as some weird teen-thing, but then Spike had shown up the next evening, supposedly to apologize and because he had a lead on the new vamp in town. He was acting all kinds of weird, especially considering the vamps weren't even close to being the right ones.

"These vamps have been here for a while. They've nested." Buffy said as she took in the obviously lived-in state of the room.

"So…you're sayin' they're a couple o' poofters?"

"No," Buffy drawled. "I'm saying they had _nothing_ to do with last night's murders."

"How d'you figure?"

"Whoever did it only arrived in town last night." She crossed her arms and looked at Spike. Normally she'd try to be avoid-o girl after what she'd heard from Dawn, but she wanted some answers. Spike had been acting weird for too long now, and it was going to stop. "Mind telling me what this whole thing is about?"

"D – I…don't know what you mean," he answered, trying to play oblivious.

"Come on, Spike! The late night stake-out, the bogus suspects, the _flask_! Is this a date to you?"

"A d- please!" he chuckled, pretending to be amused. "A date? You are completely off your bird, I mean – do you want it to be?" He asked, suddenly hopeful.

Her insides froze. No. No Dawn wasn't right, it wasn't true. She closed her eyes. "Oh my god," She whispered.

Spike sighed and looked down. He realized the Slayer must have heard something, he probably had the 'bit to thank for that. So now it was cat-out-of-the-bag moment, but he'd always imagined it differently. For instance, in his more realistic fantasies she'd reacted angry and disgusted, not like this, with this look of pain. "it's not so unusual. Two people, in the workplace, feelings develop."

She merely shook her head. "Something's happened to me, Buffy, I can't stop thinking about you, dreamin' about you." He paused. "I love y-"

"Shut up!" Spike blanched in shock at her sudden outburst. She was now looking up at him with pain and tears in her eyes. "Don't you _dare_ say it! You can't."

"What, 'cos of the soul bit? I bloody well –"

"No." She cut him off once again. "You can't love me. If _he_'s not here to love me, then you sure as hell can't either." She took a step back.

"Buffy…" He took a step towards her, but she shook her head.

"Leave me alone, Spike." With that she ran out of the place.

oooo

Buffy huddled into bed, feeling tired and depressed. She'd gone to Willie's and beat the identity of the train-vamp out of him, after which she'd ound the vamp easy enough and staked him. Then she'd come home – her mother's home, where she was staying now as she was unable to stay at the apartment without Angel – and asked Willow to dis-invite Spike from her home. She'd given no explanation as to why, but merely gone up to take a shower.

Spike's declaration had really shaken her. Somehow it had made her realize that Angel was really gone. They'd been researching for weeks now, and nothing had come up. Plus there was a big chance that time moved differently there; for all she knew he'd already been dead for years there. She choked a sob at that and squeezed her eyes shut.

No. She couldn't think like that. Couldn't give up hope, give up on him. There _had_ to be a way to bring him back, there just had to be. Even the thought of Angel never coming back tore through her entire being, making her heart bleed and numb at the same time. She'd find a way. If it took her months, she'd find a way to bring Angel back to her.

**oooo**

_Don't hate me! I – I'll give you anything I have, cookies, er…and stuff! Just don't hate me! I just like me some angst, and it can't all be fluffapalooza all the time, right? …Right?_

_Please let me know what you think, and what kind of revenge plot you are planning!_


	14. Chapter 14

_Hey I'm back! Bet ya didn't think I'd update so soon huh? Yeah, 'm pretty pleased myself…_

_Don't know if I could say the same about you guys, once you're done reading this chapter, but hey…_

**oooo**

**oooooooo**

**oooo**

Spike was gone

It was a fact that kept running through Buffy's head, over and over. She as almost at Willow's place; she would know where Spike was. She treaded the last steps of the stairs and walked down the hallway until reaching the right door, where she knocked.

A minute later a very sleep looking Willow appeared in the doorway. "Buffy?" She murmured while rubbing her eyes.

"Spike's gone," Buffy said.

Willow shushed, "Ssh! it's late." She stepped into the hallway and closed the door so she didn't wake Tara. "We can talk out here," She whispered. With a frown she took in her friend's appearance; her clothing was not something she would normally wear and she had a strange look on her face. Maybe Xander was right, maybe she'd gone just the tiniest bit crazy.

"Did Xander find you? He was looking for you."

"I don't know where Xander is. I haven't seen him. And when I came out of the tunnel, Spike was gone. I need to find him," The tone in which she spoke was oddly precise.

Willow winced at the mention of Spike," Uhm…Buffy, this thing with Spike, i-i-it isn't true, is it? You didn't, you know…sleep with Spike?"

"No."

Willow sighed and smiled with relief, until hearing her next words, which made her grimace even more.

"I had sex with Spike. I'm sorry if it bothers you. You're my best friend."

"I – I am," Willow said quickly, "and I, I always will be, no matter what you do. I – I'm just trying to figure out why this happened, and I, I think with…Angel and everything…everyone was being all sympathetic, and, and making you feel weak and lonely. A-and Spike wasn't like that. So, just this one time, you just…did something kinda…crazy."

Buffy shook her head, wondering why Willow didn't understand what she was trying to say. "It wasn't one time. It was lots of times. And lots of different ways. I could make sketches?"

"No!" Willow cried out in horror, "Buffy, there is something seriously wrong here! I…" She paused at Buffy's confused look, "I mean, how could you do that to Angel? When he comes back…"

"Angel's lame. His hair grows straight up, and he's bloody stupid."

"What? How can you say…look, I just, wanna help you. Let me help you." She was really at a loss here. Maybe Buffy was into some state of shock, or denial of some kind? It could happen…Something about the five stages of grieve, maybe this was…anger?

"You're my best friend."

"Yeah. Again, I …really am, but…"

"You're recently gay."

"Uhm…"

Just then the door opened and Tara came into the hallway. "Willow?" The redhead turned to her girlfriend questioningly. "Xander was on the phone, said there was trouble and we should meet up at Buffy's place." Then her attention fell on Buffy. "Buffy? I – I thought you were already at your place…?"

"We need to find Spike," Was all Buffy said.

The two Wicca's frowned at each other at Buffy's more than odd behaviour. "R-Right, but maybe we should go see what's going on, at your place, first, okay?" Willow suggested, and after receiving a nod from her she went to get dressed.

oooooooo

When they arrived at the Summers residence they saw Xander already there with Anya and an axe in his hand, talking to a worried looking Joyce and Dawn and…"Buffy?" Willow asked, her voice a mask of confusion.

They all turned to her, their mouths falling slack as their eyes fell on her companion. "Oh my God," Buffy breathed.

"And so say all of us!" Xander chimed in.

"Say, look at you. You look just like me!" The other Buffy said, "We're very pretty." She then added with a big plastic grin.

"Two of them!" Dawn exclaimed with wide eyes. Like one of them wasn't bad enough!

"Hey I know this! They're _both _Buffy!" Xander said.

"Nooo," The Buffy next to him said, looking annoyed. "_She's_ a robot. She acts just like that girlfriend-bot that Warren guy made. You guys couldn't tell me apart from a robot?"

"Oh, I don't think I'm a robot."

"She's very well done," Anya said which earned her a big smile from the Buffybot.

Buffy's eyes widened in horrified realisation, "Is this why you think I had sex with Spike?!"

Xander gaped, "Spike must have had her built so he could program her to –"

"Oh God."

"Yikes! Imagine the things –" Willow started.

"No! No, no imagining, any of you!" Buffy interrupted in disgust.

Xander raised his hand, "Already got the visual."

"Why on earth would Spike do such a thing, he always seemed so…well, nice and normal. For a vampire," Joyce mumbled, mostly to herself as she held her hands over Dawn's ears as if to shield her from this. The teen merely rolled her eyes.

"People, friends of mine, you're forgetting the most important thing." The Buffybot commented and had a room full of strangely looking eyes set on her. "Spike's gone, and we have to find him!"

Buffy narrowed her eyes, "Okay, first of all, skirt girl, we know where he is. Glory has him."

Willow's eyes grew, "What?"

"Yeah, that's why we were all with the weapon-getting," Xander said, "Who knows what he might tell her about Dawn."

"Second," Buffy continued as if uninterrupted, "We aren't going to help him, we are going to kill him." She eyed the robot disgustingly. "_Really_ kill him."

"You're right. He's evil. But, you should see him naked, I mean really."

Buffy scrunched up her nose in disgust. "Okay, uhm, mom, you and Dawn stay here and lock all the doors. I think I might know where to find Glory."

oooooooo

Spike flexed his hands to test how tightly the chains were bound around his wrists. Too tight, as it turned out. He wasn't getting out of those. Glory's troll-minions had hung him to the ceiling only minutes before, after the God had finished poking about his insides and thrown him about the room for a bit.

Now she was prowling around him, deciding where to start the torture-fest.

"Now I wonder why you would be precious to that Slayer." She looked him over. "I guess for a vampire, you're not too bad on the eyes. Apart from the hair." She ripped open his shirt. With one finely sculpted eyebrow raised, she ran her hands over his skin, "That's a nice chest ya got there."

The way she said it made Spike think momentarily if she actually thought she was being nice to him. "Keep your grubby mitts off me," He growled.

Her expression didn't darken; she merely grinned more widely. Her hands went to his ribs, and with her thumbs she pressed hard against the bottom ones on both sides, until they broke with a sickening crunch. "You know what I'm thinking, Sparky," She moved away from him, "If you and Muffy are as close as all that, I'm betting you know where my Key is." She gave her version of a sweet smile. "Now be a good vamp, and tell me."

Spike knew he'd die before he gave Dawn's identity to this Hell-whore, so he mentally said his goodbyes to the world and his loved ones, since he figured he wasn't coming out here alive. Unless by some miracle he'd manage to escape, which seemed unlikely. "I don't know any soddin' key."

Glory sighed dramatically. "_Why _can't you people just do this the easy way, for _once_!" She smiled then, "Well, I do enjoy a good torture." She then grabbed a knife from a nearby table and walked over the hanging vampire. "I have a riddle for you, precious. How is a vampire that won't talk, like – " Suddenly she stopped and groaned. "No! No you are _not_ going to –" She hit her head, which to Spike's shock suddenly turned into that of a man. A man he recognized from somewhere, too.

"Oh my God, what has Glory been up to now?" Ben asked the minions that were standing about, while he took in the beaten man hanging in chains with wide eyes.

"Her magnificent scrumptiousness was just about to discover who the Key was!" Jinx said, as if he thought Ben would actually be pleased about this information.

The doctor stepped up to Spike, who was watching him warily. "Hey, are you alright? I'm getting you out here, don't worry." He searched the room for a key. After finding one he unlocked the chains and gently let the vampire down. "Hold on, okay? I'll take you to the hospital," He said as Spike fell to his knees for a moment.

"You cannot set him free!" Murk protested, "The Glorificus needs him, he knows the Key!"

"All the more reason to free him," Ben said. He'd turned his back to Spike, who was now back on his feet and looking at him suspiciously.

He'd seen Glory turn into this pillock – who he now recognized as the guy that'd been hitting on Buffy once – right before his eyes, but he didn't seem to want to find the Key. He smelled human, which Spike found odd, but there was also something off, which might be because he shared his body with a God.

Spike vamped out. If this man wasn't entirely human, it meant he could harm him. He only hoped he didn't turn out to have the same Godly powers as his female counterpart.

Before the minions could yell their warning and come to the rescue, Spike had grabbed Ben by the neck and turned him around. Ben's eyes widened as they met Spike's yellow ones, and he tried to claw Spike's hand from its iron grip on his neck.

Spike grinned; no chip zapping. "I wonder, pretty boy, when I wring your neck, snuff out the light, so to speak, if your slutty bodypartner kicks it too?" He got his answer when Ben's eyes widened knowingly, and the minions cried out in horror.

The lepered goblins seemed frozen in indecision between going against the vampire with just the two of them, or going to get help which mean leaving the room. The decision was reached too late, for just as they made to move, Spike had grabbed Ben's head and twisted it, making the neck snap with an unmistakable sound. Seconds later he heard the man's heartbeat come to a stop and he dropped the dead body to the ground. The cries of agony that came from the minions in the room and those that came running to the rescue too late, only reassured Spike more that by some lucky twist of fate, he'd managed to kill the God that had made all his Summers girls' life a hell for the past months.

Since he went ignored by the ugly minions, who were now all kneeling at Ben's corpse, sobbing loudly, Spike saw fit to leisurely stroll out the room. It wasn't until he got to the elevator that he caught up with his broken body and nearly collapsed.

oooooooo

Buffy had quickly found out exactly which of the expensive condo's belonged to Glory. She signed to the Scoobies behind her to get ready, before kicking the door in and holding up her crossbow.

And was met with an empty hallway.

She raised an eyebrow. "Uhm, Buffy? You sure this is the place?" Xander asked her from behind.

"Wait, what's that sound? It's like…crying?" Buffy looked at the stairs. "It's coming from up upstairs, let's go."

Just then the elevator dinged and the doors slid open. Buffy held up the crossbow once more and that's when she saw who it was inside the lift.

Spike was just struggling to get up from his sitting position, when he saw the cavalry that had just stormed in. He took one look at the real Buffy and immediately realized what he'd known all along. That bloody robot could never even _begin_ to compare to her. She looked glorious, like the warrior she was, ready to fight. He wished he could have enjoyed the moment of knowing her Glory-formed troubles were over, but then once more he was struck with the badness of his injuries.

He'd gotten beaten, poked deep holes in and suffered great blood loss, broken ribs and kicked across the room a couple of times; all by a crazy God from Hell. So now that he felt he could relax with Buffy here, he suddenly felt the pull of unconsciousness and slipped down the wall to the ground.

Buffy and Willow exchanged glances as they saw how badly he'd been beaten.

"Spike!" The shrill cry of the bot came as she rushed to the unconscious vampire. "Spike wake up, I love you."

At that Buffy raised her eyebrows. "Okay, can anyone shut that thing off or something? It's creeping me out. Much like this place," She added as she once again took in the empty hallway. "Something's not right here, where is everybody? And what is that crying?"

"Whatever it is, I suggest we get out of here before Glory catches up with us," Giles said.

"You're right. Could you and Xander take care of Spike?"

"Sure thing, Buffy," Xander said and the two men walked over to the robot and the vampire.

"Uhm, robot-Buffy?" Buffy called, "Pry yourself away from Spike for a sec and come here."

Buffybot smiled, "Okay."

"Willow?" Buffy asked. The witch nodded and went to searching the robot's body for some kind of switch, which earned her a crazy look from the bot. The off-button was found under her hair, at the nape of her neck and the robot froze immediately.

"Thank God." Buffy sighed. That thing just freaked her out. "Okay, we'll take…it, to the Magic Box, and we'll meet you guys there?" She asked Giles and Xander who had just hoisted Spike up.

They went their respective ways, the sound of crying and wailing still on the background.

oooooooo

Buffy straightened the ugly skirt and practiced her most fake grin, before opening the door of the crypt and walking in with a bouncy step. She stopped by the sarcophagus where Spike lay, half asleep, still looking very beaten. "Spike! You're covered in sexy wounds!" She inwardly cringed at the ridiculous words coming from her mouth.

"Yeah," The vampire groaned as he slowly sat up. "I feel real sexy. Where've you been?" He asked non-committedly.

"They took me to the Magic Box and then Willow turned me back on. She's gay."

"An' she just let you go? Thought they'd melt you into scrap…"

"I guess they were confused. D'you wanna ravish me now?" She really hoped not.

"Not really, right now. 'm, ah, bit worse for wear, yeh?" Why was he trying to not hurt a robot's feelings anyway? He wondered.

"Why did you let that Glory hurt you?"

"She wanted to know who the Key was."

Fear gripped her heart, "And did you tell her?" She asked with the most non-caring and chippery voice she could muster.

"'f course I bloody didn't!" The look on his face was one of outrage.

"Why not?"

"Couldn't do that to Buffy – the other Buffy…or any of those Summers women…anythin' happened to Dawn, it'd destroy 'em…couldn't live seeing 'em in that much pain." He shrugged. "But I s'pose it doesn't matter anymore now, what with Glory bein' dead an' all."

"Wait, what!?" She couldn't have heard that right, could she?

Spike frowned, and then finally noticed the heartbeat and unmistakable scent. "Buffy?"

"W-What do you mean, Glory's dead?" She didn't care about keeping up appearances right now.

"Well, jus' as she was plannin' on a good 'n proper torture-bout, presto, she turned into a man right before my eyes. Turns out she 'n this git share the same body. An' since he was all weak 'n almost human-like, it was easy to kill him. 'n what with all the cryin' those minions did, I think I can safely say that, yeah, Glory's really out of the picture."

The surge of relief and happiness that rushed through her was something she hadn't felt since before Angel had been thrown into that hell-dimension nearly three months ago. Her relief was so great and she felt such gratefulness, that before she really knew what she was doing, she grabbed Spike's head between her hands and crushed her lips to his.

**oooo **

**oooooooo**

**oooo **

_NOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooo.o…o…….but yes. _

_I know that whole thing with the Glory-killing might seem a bit too easy, but I just needed her to be out of the way._

_I'd appreciate it if you'd try to keep your hateful words and name-calling to a minimal, I'm very…fragile, right now…-bats eyelashes- I'd love it if you'd review, though!_


	15. Chapter 15

Greetings earthlings, I come in peace. And with a new chapter. Have you forgotten what this story is about? I am not surprised. And I'm also really, very, oh so very a whole lot sorry for not updating for like almost half a year…my god has it been that long? I can't believe how fast time goes these days…Um, if it's any consolation, I did actually have almost this entire chapter in my head for a very long time, but I just started college, and I'm busier than I thought I'd be…

Anyhow, let's not keep you waiting any longer than you already have, here's the next chap.

**Ooo**

**Oooooo**

**ooo**

_No no no no no no no_ was the mantra going through Buffy's head as she ran home, tears welling up in her eyes. She couldn't believe it. Couldn't believe what she'd done! How badly she'd just betrayed Angel. How could she have let herself forget, even for a fraction of a second?

He was counting on her to save him, to get him out of that dimension, and here she was going behind his back, kissing someone else – kissing _Spike_! It had been bad enough when it happened with Willow's spell, but now…

She'd been so relieved. So intensely happy that after everything she'd gone through, the giant threat that Glory had formed was now out of the way. And because of it she'd stopped worrying about him, just one short second. But it was a second too much. She'd kissed someone else, and she hadn't thought of him.

Feeling numb, she climbed up the tree and slipped into her room through the window. Without taking her clothes off she laid down on the bed, face upwards with tears streaming silently down her face.

Oo

Oooo

Oo

Today would have been the day.

The realisation allowed Giles to finally relax. Ever since he'd heard Spike had supposedly killed Glory, he'd been on edge, waiting for the Hell God to suddenly turn up and catch them all unaware.

He cross-referenced his calculations with the data in the book he'd acquired at the black market once more. Yes, the exact date of when Glory would have had to have bled Dawn was today. In fact, it had been two hours ago. But Dawn was sitting safely at the table in the Magic Box, not three meters away from him, and the world had apparently not ended.

Well. That was rather anti-climatic. He'd not told Buffy this, but had Glory not been killed and had she somehow managed to take Dawn, the only way for Buffy to save the world once the bleeding had started, was to kill Dawn. He took off his glasses to polish them, shaking his head in disbelief at their luck.

The front door opened to let out a customer, and a gust of wind caused a few pages of his book to turn over. Giles was about to leaf back, when what he saw on that particular page gave him pause. Quickly he reached into the drawer behind the counter and pulled out the drawing Buffy had made of the amulet Holtz had held in his hand. "Good Lord," he mumbled in disbelief. Months of research, trying to find even a speck of information, and here a simple gust of wind gave him everything he needed with dumb luck.

He hastily picked up the book and read. And then what he'd feared most was confirmed. He rubbed is face and another 'Good Lord' escaped him.

"What's up, Giles? You've said that twice now, something wrong?"

Giles looked solemnly into the curious eyes of his Slayer and hated how much pain was going to cause her. "I'm afraid so." He sighed gravely. "It appears I have found the information on the amulet and the erm, dimension Angel has been sent to."

Buffy's eyes widened in shock and she was immediately up and at Giles' side. "Y-You have? And?" The attention of the others had been drawn too, and they were all now looking so hopeful at him that it pained him to have to tell them what came next.

"This particular dimension isn't a-a Hell dimension, per say. It's, erm, actually quite similar to ours, only certain events have gone differently. It depends on the person that's first sent through the portal, but the dimension always takes on a form that is close to the person's worst fear."

"So you're saying that where Angel is, it could be like that he'd have lost his soul again, o-or like…Buffy died, or something?" Willow asked, trying to think of what Angel would fear the most.

"Possibly," Giles confirmed. "Another matter is that erm, time moves quite differently there…" He didn't say more, not wanting to tell Buffy that Angel could already be long dead. But from the horrified look on her face, she seemed to have come to that conclusion herself.

Her face was devoid of any colour. "How…how can we bring him back?" She asked quietly.

Giles polished his glasses once more. "I'm afraid…that's the problem. We can't." Several gasps were heard at this. "The only way to open the portal is with the amulet. There is only one version of it, and it cannot be copied o-or summoned. And the only one with the amulet is Holtz, and he's followed Angel into the dimension."

"You mean there's no way? Ever?" Xander asked.

"I'm afraid not." Giles replied, his head bowed.

All eyes went to Buffy, who was standing frozen, white as paper, staring into space.

"Buffy?" Dawn asked quietly, her face full of concern.

Buffy's eyes shot to her little sister, then to Giles. A soft whimper escaped her throat. Suddenly she turned and ran out of the shop.

Oooooo

Ooo

A frustrated growl resounded through the cold space of the crypt, as Spike paced back and forth over the floor. It had been two weeks since he'd seen Buffy – since the kiss – and he had yet to talk to her. And not for lack of trying

But somehow she'd managed to avoid him on patrols – if she had actually been patrolling that is – and he'd been locked from her house, as he'd had to find out the hard way. Joyce had been sympathetic enough to him when he rang the doorbell after trying to get in, but she made it clear Buffy didn't want to see him.

He knew kissing him had upset her, probably because she thought she was betraying Angel or something like that, but he just wanted to talk to her about it, find out what it meant to her.

But he reckoned that wasn't about to happen any time soon. He sighed dejectedly. "I need a drink," he mumbled, and went to find a bottle, with the intention of getting seriously pissed. Before he could locate one, though, the door suddenly burst open, followed by Buffy storming in. She stood still in the middle of the room, breathing raggedly.

"Buffy?" Spike frowned when he saw the expression of pure devastation on her tear-streaked face. "Love, what happened?"

She let out a loud sob and cried something incoherent. She then looked so shocked, as if suddenly realising what she'd just said. Her hands went to her hair as she mumbled something over and over.

Spike thought he could make out the words 'he's gone,' and inwardly sighed. Angel again. Still, he couldn't bear seeing the woman he loved so broken and walked over to gather her in his arms. Surprisingly, she let him, burying her head in his neck as she started sobbing.

"Ssh, pet. Don't cry," He whispered. "Tell me what happened."

"I – I can't," She cried, "I can't remember, don't make me, please!" She lifted her head and looked up to him with wide eyes filled with tears. "Help me forget?" She half whispered.

Unsure of what she meant, but unable to deny her anything, he put on a gentle smile, "Of course, love, anything."

And suddenly she was kissing him.

She clung to him with the kind of desperation that only came with having nothing to lose. Spike knew he should stop this, that she was only doing this to escape from her pain. She didn't want him, he was just convenient. He knew it. But it didn't keep him from her returning her kiss, from pulling her closer to him. Because with as much as he wanted her, he'd take whatever crumb he could get.

Oo

Oooo

Oo

The grass was damp from the morning dew. As Angel slowly regained his consciousness he could feel his fingers digging in the wet earth and the blades of grass coming loose from the pressure. He was lying face down, his head pounding painfully. _What had happened?_

With some effort, and a loud groan he slowly pushed himself upright with his arms to take in his surroundings. He was in a cemetery. A crypt stood not far ahead, and Angel immediately recognized it as the one Spike lived in. Of course. He softly cursed to himself while he stood up. Whatever had happened to him, Spike must have had something to do with it.

He brushed the dirt off his clothes and reached up his head, where he could feel a large bump forming and dried blood caked in his hair. "Just great," he muttered.

He made his way over to the crypt and noted with a frown that the first door was standing wide open, and the second one was slightly ajar. Sounds were coming from inside. Tell-tale sounds. He should've known right then. He should have known, turned around and walked away. Instead he moved forwards and pushed open the door.

Nothing could have prepared him for the sight that greeted him and in one moment made his entire world shatter.

Oo

Oooo

Oo

A considerable amount of time later Buffy lay on her back, eyes staring blindly at the ceiling, her entire being feeling numb. She willed herself not to think about anything, because she knew if she did, she'd break down completely.

Spike was lying on his side beside her, looking at her intently. Slowly he raised his hand and reached for her, only to pull back when she flinched.

She didn't want him touching her with tenderness. She hadn't spent all that time making l– no, fucking him with wild abandon, violence and – on her side – unattached passion, just to have him touch her tenderly now. She didn't want that from him, or anyone, ever again.

"Buffy, -"

"Shut up," She whispered without breaking her stare with the ceiling. "You…you knew it wasn't about that."

_About me,_ Spike mentally added. "I knew," He said, even though he wished it wasn't so. "It's just I…love, I want –"

"No. Please don't." She shot a fleeting glance at him and saw his pained expression, and suddenly she couldn't bear being here with him anymore, not when he was showing emotion the way he was. It made it too…real. "I have to go," She mumbled before hastily getting up and going about finding her clothes.

"Buffy," He called after her, but she'd already shot up the ladder. Spike sighed deeply before rolling on his back, listening to her rushing into her clothing before leaving his crypt with a slam of both doors. He should be happy. In all the fantasies he'd had about making love to Buffy, it had never been as amazing as it had been in reality. But in his mind, it had always ended with him holding her close afterwards. But here he was, lying alone. And he was just feeling miserable.

Oo

Oooo

Oo

Buffy moaned as Spike's thrusts into her body sped up. Keeping one arm securely around his shoulders, she reached back with the other to clutch the pillar she was pressed against for leverage. She fleetingly thought that once again they hadn't reached the bed, not even the downstairs.

Suddenly something moving to her right caught her eye. The door slowly swung open. She yelped, "Angel!"

Immediately Spike sprang away from her as if scalded. His accusing eyes burned at her and he growled. "Angel!?" Then he saw her attention wasn't on him and he followed the direction of her horrified stare. A slow, pleased smirk formed on his lips. "Angel."

"Oh god," Buffy whimpered and quickly grabbed the nearest object, namely Spike's coat, from the floor to cover her naked body.

Spike, being in no hurry to do the same, crossed his arms and took in the completely gob smacked expression on his Grandsire's paler than usual face. "What's the matter, old man, not what you expected?"

Buffy shot daggers at him, "Don't you start saying that 'delicious' thing again."

He raised an eyebrow at her, "Well you gotta admit, love, this _is _rather – "

"Spike," She said warningly and he raised his hands in mock surrender while a big smirk remained on his lips. She cleared her throat awkwardly and raised her eyes to meet Angel's. "Uhm, I'd say this isn't what it looks like, but I think there's really nothing else it _could_ look like…" He still didn't say anything. "So uhm…what, uh, are you doing here?" She asked lamely, trying to pretend he hadn't just walked in on her and Spike having crazy naked monkey lovin'.

**Ooo**

**Oooooo**

**Ooo**

_Das war es_, the end of this chapter. More to come…someday. _Ah oui, je sais_, I suck at updating. I'm so sorry. But please, if you liked this chapter, or was disgusted by it but want to keep reading anyway for the good of B/A-ness, leave me a review. Please?


	16. Chapter 16

Won't bore you with my life story, you've heard it all before. Let's just get on with the new update!

**Ooo**

**Oooooo**

**ooo**

"Uhm...Angel?" Buffy prodded, when her shocked ex still hadn't said anything. Or moved. Or even blinked. She fleetingly shared a glance with Spike, who in the mean time had put on his jeans and was still sporting that pleased little smirk on his face. "A-Are you okay?" She asked next.

Suddenly a sign of life. Angel's eyes jumped to meet hers, and she blanched at the amount of intense hurt she could see in them. "Buffy," He whispered hoarsely, "h-how could…what, what are y –" He broke off with what sounded suspiciously like a sob. He took a step further into the crypt, "I – I thought you were – "

"You thought she was gonna, what? Spend 'er life tryin' to obey your wishes by spendin' it with mr. Normal?" Spike cut him off, very wrongfully guessing what his grandsire was going to say. He scoffed, "Please. The girl needs a bit o' monster in 'er man, an' you know it."

Buffy thwacked him on the arm and glared at him. "Ow! What?"

"You're making this way worse! Look at him, he's obviously a little shocked over this thing, no need to add fuel to the fire." Buffy hissed at him, which only earned her a raised eyebrow.

Angel managed to push away the ever growing screaming of his breaking heart to make way for a sudden rage. "A little shocked!?" He growled, "You think this would merely have me 'a little shocked'?! How could you do this Buffy?"

Buffy looked at him with wide eyes, "Okay, I get that me and Spike being together would upset you, but I don't think it's really any of your business."

Unable to form words, all Angel could do was stare at her. "…Not my business?" He finally managed to ground out between clenched teeth.

"Well no. Not really." He heard her reply, but it sounded far away. He was beginning to feel dizzy; this wasn't right.

"Were you even going to tell me?" He asked, but he wasn't sure if he'd said it out loud. He looked at her as she answered. She suddenly seemed like a stranger to him; where was the love that always shone from her eyes? Where was the warmth? Was there something different about her hair?

"I don't know, maybe. I hadn't really thought about it." Buffy said.

This wasn't right. He knew it. This couldn't be his Buffy, it just couldn't be. She would never do this to him. Never. She loved him. Didn't she?

"You're heart's racing." Spike suddenly said.

Angel's gaze flew to Spike, who was watching him with suspicion. "What?" His words were echoed by Buffy.

"You're heart. It's beating. And fast, for that matter." Spike said again.

"W-Wait, what do you mean, beating?" Buffy turned shocked eyes to Angel's, "You're human?"

"Buffy, what are you talking about, you know this! What's wrong with you?"

"You've been bleedin' too." Spike remarked, smelling the dried blood on the back of Angel's head.

Angel was about to say something when Buffy held up one hand to stop him, making sure to keep the other securely clutching the coat covering her body. "Wait, stop. I'm kind of becoming confused here. Angel, what exactly is going on?"

He scoffed bitterly, "That's what I'd like to know. How long, Buffy? How long have you been sleeping with Spike?"

"Will you quit hammering on that for a sec? That's not really the issue here, despite the you sorta walking in on us. When did you become human?"

Spike pursed his lips in slight annoyance, "Hold it, love, I think I've got this sussed out. See, dear old Angel here somehow regained his humanity. Probably through some kind o' prophesy, full of soggy heroisms an' that rot, right Peaches? An' now you came to Sunnydale, looking to reclaim yer rights as the love of Buffy's life," he said, looking at Angel with a sneer.

"Shut up, you have no idea what you're talking about," Angel ground out, his hatred, already set ablaze with a roaring fire due to these recent developments, growing with every word the bleached vampire said.

"But you see, it doesn't work that way. Slayer's moved on."

"Shut. Up." Angel again muttered through clenched teeth.

"An' I have to say, she made an improvement," Spike continued.

"I said, shut up!" Angel roared, his final thread of control snapping and his vampire mask coming to the fore. He stormed up to Spike in the blink on an eye and punched him square in the face, sending him across the room. He was about to move after him, when he was held back by two small but strong hands.

He looked into Buffy's bewildered gaze with rage in his eyes. "Don't. Touch me," He snarled, and pulled his arm free. Moving towards Spike again, who was just getting up, he was tackled to the ground by Buffy. She then punched him in the jaw. Due to the blow he'd already received earlier, he was knocked out cold.

Oo

Ooooo

Oo

After that fatal day, the day she found out Angel was truly lost to her forever, Buffy fell into a state of depression. And while she had long since moved back in with her mother, she was hardly ever there. After the first time with Spike, Buffy'd tried to convince herself it was a mistake, that it had been a moment of weakness and she had needed some comfort.

But as the numbness had made way for a constant screaming pain, she'd sought him out again. First only for the way he'd be able to make her forget and feel something besides pain. Later she found herself spending most of her time at his crypt, for she couldn't stand how all the others kept talking to her with such carefulness and giving her sympathetic looks.

The fact that Spike didn't care that Angel was gone should have angered her, but it just made her feel relieved, because he treated her normally – or as normal as someone who was constantly closed-off and depressed could be treated.

She knew it hurt Spike to give her all he could, and all he got in return was her body and occasionally a distanced conversation. But she couldn't bring it in herself to change it – or to care.

It was moments like _these_ that Buffy found a little bit of peace.

She'd close her eyes, shut off her mind, and she could pretend she was back home with Angel. Lying spooned against his back with his arms around her, one hand grazing her breasts and the other softly stroking her tummy.

When having sex with Spike, she never allowed thoughts of Angel, somehow feeling she'd betray his memory that way. But like this, just lying in bed with her back turned and her eyes closed, she could pretend. Even for just a little while.

"Buffy," Spike's voice sounded in her ear, shattering the illusion.

Slowly she reopened her eyes and looked at the room for a while, forcing herself back into the lower level of Spike's crypt that she was actually in, not the cozy bedroom of her and Angel's apartment. She half turned to meet the vampire's eyes and waited for him to continue.

Spike looked at her for a moment, noting the way her eyes were empty whenever they met his, where they used to be full of life – even if they always sparked with irritation at his presence. He inwardly sighed, for the thousandth time wondering if his being with her was helping her or only destroying her further. "Think maybe we should patrol, love?" He then asked, for lack of anything else to say.

She gave an awkward shrug, "I guess." It struck her funny that an evil, soulless vampire cared more about her performing her sacred duty than she did. But then again, she could hardly care for anything these days, so she supposed it wasn't all that strange.

Quietly they got up, got dressed and spent the next few hours moving through cemeteries. Patrols were usually quiet, with Buffy dutifully slaying any vampire or demon that met her path, and Spike occasionally lending a hand. But the fire she used to have, the zest for life, for a good fight, was no longer there. Now she just seemed to be going through the motions.

Oo

Oooo

Oo

Angel slowly woke up, his head throbbing painfully. He tried to reach up with his hand, but found he couldn't. He was tied up. Opening his eyes, he frowned when he found himself in Joyce's living room, and he was sitting on one of the dining room chairs with his arms bound to the back of it.

The memories of what he'd seen at Spike's crypt rushed back to him and he closed his eyes at the all encompassing pain it caused. How could this have happened? He'd been so happy with Buffy, living together with her, his love for her growing with each day. Hadn't it been the same for her? He'd really thought it was, but apparently he'd been wrong.

Still, he couldn't help but think there was something not right here. Both Buffy and Spike had seemed to not know about his half-human status. But how could that be? Was it somehow connected to his getting attacked outside the apartment?

Hearing footsteps, he pricked his ears to hear who it was and what was being said.

"You think he's awake?" He heard Dawn's voice saying.

A sigh. That was Buffy. "I don't know, I'll go check."

"What was he doing there anyway?"

"I'll have to ask. It must have had something to do with him being…I don't know what he is, coz he's still strong and has his vampface, but his heart is beating…" She sounded confused.

"Oh look, he's awake!" Dawn said, coming into the room, followed by Buffy. "Uhm, h-hey Angel."

Angel looked at her with a frown. Since when was she taller than Buffy? He turned his gaze to Buffy and found her looking at him warily. "Why am I tied up?" He asked her.

She shrugged, her expression unchanging, "You were going a little ballistic, so we tied you up just in case you were still with the crazy when you woke up." She explained, as if it was the most logical thing ever. His eyes, when set on her, were so full of pain and…betrayal?, that she had to look away.

Sensing this was going to be one of those conversations she'd rather not be present at, Dawn quietly backed out of the room and went to the kitchen to fix herself some food.

"I don't understand Buffy, how could you do this?"

"What, tie you up?" She asked with faux-innocence.

"You know what I mean. How long has this been going on?"

She frowned at his tone, "I don't know, couple of months, maybe?" At that she saw him recoiling in shock and she thought he was about to cry. "Angel, I don't get it, why are you being all movie-of-the-week? It's not like I haven't been seeing other people."

"Why am I…" He softly gasped, "I think the fact that my girlfriend has been sleeping around with someone –_Spike! –_ behind my back gives me every reason to be upset!" He growled, his anger evident in his voice.

"Your _Girlfriend_? My god, are you delusional? I mean, you do remember the whole 'you breaking up with me' thing that was about three years ago, right?"

Angel narrowed his eyes, "I do. I'm starting to think the question is: do you remember what happened after that?"

She frowned, "What do you mean?"

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What does he mean indeed? I guess we'll find out…someday. Please let me know what you think!!


	17. Chapter 17

_Oh my god. My deepest apologies for the extremely long wait. The thing is that I started to __get annoyed by this story, as often happens after I've been writing a story for a while, and was unable to continue. But now I finally got a little inspiration, so here I am again! If you haven't forgotten…which many have, I'm sure._

_By the by, there are a lot of people that don't like Buffy being with Spike in the real dimension, and I'm sorry for that (also for myself, because it means I've lost a lot of readers). I just couldn't ignore the ideas my angst-loving' brain came up with._

_But anyhooo, for those of you that ARE still enjoying this story, here's the next chap! At last!_

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Buffy had called the Scoobies over to the Magic Box for a meeting, telling them they very possibly had a bit of a situation on their hands. And sure enough, when she and Angel entered the shop, all of them were already there, waiting for her to arrive. "Hey guys," She said upon entering.

They all looked surprised when they saw who accompanied her. "Hey, it's Angel!" Xander exclaimed not too intelligently.

"Angel, what are you doing here?" Willow asked with a frown. "Uh, I-I mean, hi!" She added, realising she'd sounded kind of rude.

"He's kind of the reason for the meeting." Buffy said. "See there's this thing that…well, Angel thinks he might be from another dimension. I was actually more thinking evil-memory spell, coz god knows those have been around often enough."

Willow frowned. "Uhm, okay?"

"Details would be much helpful," Xander added with a confused grin.

"Okay, well, see the thing is, he kind of walked in on me and Spike while we were…uh…kind of, uh, busy," She stammered, a blush creeping up. "And well, he kinda freaked. A lot. Because for some reason, he thinks we're still together. Oh, and he's sort of like, half-human. And he thinks that we're supposedly still together and like, living together and stuff, and it's all kind of weird. So like I said, I'm thinking evil memory spell."

Angel looked at her angrily, "It's not a spell. I know what I remember is real, okay? It has to be something else. Everything here is different."

Getting out a pen and paper, Willow got into research mode. "Okay, uh, let's start with the facts. Angel, what happened before you uh…before things changed?"

Angel walked over to the counter and leaned against it, crossing his arms. "I remember just seeing this big demon before getting knocked unconscious. Then I woke up in the cemetery."

"Do you remember what you had done that day?" She asked, writing down his answer.

Angel frowned as he remembered that Buffy had gone to talk to Spike about the Slayers. Why was it always Spike? "Well, first I tended to Buffy's wound she got the night before. See this vampire staked her in the stomach. And while she went out to research and made Spike tell her about the Slayers he killed, I went out to find the vamp that did that to her. There was a nest, but I managed to kill them all. Uhm, a little while later, I was just going to see how Buffy was doing and then I was attacked, right outside our apartment."

Willow looked at Buffy, who was frowning. "Okay, not only was that over a year ago, but I was also with Riley then."

"I think Angel might be right," Anya piped up, "This does sound like alternate-reality stuff."

"Yeah, probably having something to do with whoever knocked him out." Willow said. "Angel, any thoughts on who it could be?"

He looked thoughtful, "Could've been anyone. There's this one woman, Glory I think her name is, who was really strong. She could have had something to do with it. Also, someone from my past, who showed up couple of weeks ago. Holtz. He was looking for revenge, but we hadn't heard from him in a while."

"Hey guys," Buffy interrupted, "before we all decide to go with the alternate reality thing, maybe we should check with the guys over at LA to see if maybe there's something going on over there, like say, Angel missing?"

Willow shrugged, "Okay yeah, that sounds like a plan."

With a nod Buffy went to the back of the room where the telephone was. She picked up the phone and dialled Angel's number and waited. "Angel Investigations," A masculine voice sounded on the other end. One very much belonging to Angel.

"Uhm, is this Angel?" She asked, just to be sure.

"Hi – yeah, it's me – Buffy? Is that you?"

"Yeah yeah, it's me. Is uhm, is everything okay over there, in LA?"

"Well, as okay as it can get I guess. Why, what's wrong?"

"Oh nothing," Buffy quickly stammered. If indeed things were as they should be over at LA, then maybe the Angel right here in the Magic Box might be more in the right. "Just uh, there's some crazy stuff going on here, and I was just wondering if it might have…spread," She said lamely.

"Oh. Well, not to my knowledge. Do you need me to come over and help out?" He asked, more out of politeness, since he knew she usually didn't need outside help, let alone his.

"No, no, it's fine, I got it. Thanks anyway. Well since everything's fine and dandy over there with you and all, I'd better go. You know, research to be done and all. Bye!" She quickly hung up before he could even reply. No need to have two Angel's over. She returned to the main area of the store.

"And?" Willow asked.

"Not only did Angel pick up the phone, but all's a-okay over in LA. Which means we're dealing with a double. I'm guessing you were right," She addressed Angel, who was looking fairly depressed.

"Man, that's the fourth one to get a double," Xander mused, "I wonder who'll be next. I hope it's Anya, I wouldn't mind having two of her." While a dreamy grin appeared on his face, Anya started wondering if she should be jealous of herself, should that ever happen.

"Guys focus," Buffy ordered. "We should determine whether or not this Angel actually came from a different dimension, and who was the one who did this. Now, you mentioned Glory, but I think we can pretty much rule her out. She wouldn't take the time to mess with one person only, unless she thought it might bring her closer to the Key. And I'm guessing, sending you to another dimension? Not so much helping with that. What about this Holtz guy you mentioned, who is he?"

Angel set about telling the story of how he knew Holtz from long ago, and how he'd somehow come back, looking for revenge. For the moment the group decided to both start researching alternate realities and look for traces of this Holtz guy. As the gang started getting out the books and possible spell ingredients, Angel excused himself and went to training room at the back. He sat down on a pile of mats, holding his head in his hands.

On the one hand he was glad that this probably wasn't his Buffy that he'd caught together with Spike. But on the other, he couldn't get the image of their fucking out of his mind. It was burned on his brain. He knew it shouldn't hurt so much, because it wasn't real. But it had looked real. It had sounded and smelled real. And it certainly felt real. Knowing that Buffy, in any reality, was with Spike and not with him; it felt like he was being eaten alive on the inside from the pain of it.

He was trying to think rationally, that in every reality events could occur vastly different from each other. Maybe in this one he and Buffy had never gotten together somehow. But how could that be? He felt like they belonged together, wouldn't that be a universal thing?

He was pulled from his musings by the soft voice of his love. Only, not _his_. "Angel?" She called as she stepped into the training room, "Are you okay?"

Raising his head, he turned his pain-filled eyes to Buffy. "To be honest? No, I'm really not."

"I'm sorry," She mumbled softly. Sitting down next to him, they were quite for a few seconds. "Can I ask you something?" He nodded. "What happened in your uh, dimension I guess, with the other Buffy and you?"

He sighed, "You mean…after we broke up? Well, you came over to LA one day, a few months after that, and there was this demon. Its blood was revitalising, and some of it got accidentally mixed with mine, making me alive again. So then we were able to be together without the risk of me losing my soul and everything so…well, we got back together. I moved back to Sunnydale, and after a while you moved in with me. Only then _this_ whole thing happened."

"Wow," Buffy sighed with wide eyes, "So where you come from is like this perfect world where everything in my life went right, huh?"

Angel decided not to respond to that, and instead turned her previous question back around to her. "So what happened here, then? With you and me? Or just, your life?"

"Boy, where do I begin?" Buffy said with pursed lips. "Well, let's see. You broke up with me, I guess you remember that part. And that whole thing you said with the demon didn't happen. I did visit you in LA once, but you killed the demon that crashed into your office in one move, so, no revitalising or anything." Angel frowned at that, something about it sounding not exactly right. "So, we didn't get together, and I sort of moved on. Dated this guy Riley, which didn't turn out right. He left me, after some problems. Then there was Spike, telling me he loved me. I of course didn't want to hear it. Anyway, there was a big bad, the biggest and baddest, who was after Dawn. In the end it came down to either killing Dawn or myself. I chose the latter."

Angel looked at her in confused shock, but she merely shrugged sardonically. "Yeah, well. I ended up in Heaven. My friends somehow thought I'd be in Hell, so they decided to resurrect me. It was…well, let's say I was very bad for a long time. Didn't cope well at all, of course. Then I started this really bad relationship with Spike, filled with lots of abuse. Only a few weeks ago I realised it couldn't go on like that. I had…I guess, an epiphany of sorts, and realised I either kept on this self-destructive path, or tried to make the best of this new life I had. So Spike and I worked on some issues, I came clean to him _and_ myself about my feelings about him, and we've since been trying to work on being together in a more healthy way. Even told my friends about it, who were pretty accepting, and didn't immediately drop me like I'd thought they would…"

Angel was silent for a while, letting it sink in. "Never thought it'd turn out so bad for you," He eventually said.

"Wasn't all bad," She shrugged. "This thing I have right now with Spike is pretty good," She winced, "though you probably _really _don't want to hear that."

"Not particularly, no," He grumbled. "So, what about me? I mean, how's my life in this dimension?"

"Well, we don't really talk that much these days, but from what I hear, pretty good. You have this big old hotel where you do the 'Angel Investigations' thing, with Cordelia, Wesley and some other people working with you. Oh, I think you – eh, he, might be sort of in love with Cordy." Angel looked at her incredulously, at which she shrugged, "Yeah, that's what I thought. Oh! And Darla got resurrected, and somehow you two ended up having a son together and she had to stake herself so he could be born."

"Uhm," Angel frowned, seemingly quite shocked.

"I mean I haven't actually seen the baby myself, but he - other Angel called me and sounded pretty excited about being a daddy. He named him Connor," Buffy said, sounding somewhat wistful. Though she no longer wanted to be with Angel herself, she'd always imagined, in her earlier years, that if by some miracle Angel would be able to have babies, it would be with her, not that skank Darla.

"Connor," Angel mumbled to himself. It was the name he'd imagined one of his and Buffy's babies would have, and to hear another Angel's child be called that only made him long for his home with Buffy more. He wanted to start a life with her. Wanted to marry her, have a family with her. What if he'd never get home?

Buffy looked at him with sympathy. "We'll get you back," She said softly, momentarily touching her hand to his knee.

He nodded, not really looking at her. "It's just that…" He shook his head to himself, "I was planning to ask you - _her_ to marry me, and seeing you with Spike like that it's just…yeah." He sighed heavily. Why was it always Spike? He thought, not for the first time. First with that love spell from Willow, then with the body switch with Faith, and now…

"Wow," Buffy mumbled, eyes wide, "You were really gonna ask her?"

"Well you know, not right away. But soon. There's this ring I saw that would just be perfect for her." His eyes met hers. "What if I won't get back?"

"You will. We'll make sure of it, I promise."

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_I hope this was a little bit worth the__ loooong wait…although probably not since I just realised there's only the Scooby meeting and some history recapping between B and A…hm… Luckily I already have a large part of the next chapter written, so that should be up not too long from now._


	18. Chapter 18

_Hey guys, look how awesome, a new update already! And in my opinion this chappie is lots more happenin´ than the last one. So here ya go, enjoy (or not)…_

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Buffy sighed as she flipped through her Art's History book. College had been hard for months now, but it seemed it was getting worse. In fact, since three weeks she'd been unable to concentrate on anything anymore, where before she could at least put up a _little_ bit of effort to study. Why was it so much harder now, when before it hadn't been _that_ big of a problem?

Of course she knew why. Because this time she didn't have a safety net. Didn't have someone to distract her from her pain. Didn't have Spike anymore.

He'd left.

Three weeks ago he'd left. Packed up a bunch of his stuff and just took off, without even telling her where he was going or for how long he'd be gone. At least he'd told her he was going in the first place. Boy had he told her.

_After they'd had sex__ that had been filled with a strange sort of desperation, he held her tightly in his arms, and she let him. He was being more quiet than usual, and after a while he finally forced out the question that had been burning inside of him for a very long time. "I'm never going to be good enough for you, am I?" He murmured quietly, voice laced with pain._

_She stiffened. Questions or talks about her feelings or their 'relationship' were something she always avoided at all cost. But he didn't wait for an answer. "I'm not him. No matter how much I try, I'll never be like Angel. That's why you can't let me in," He told her._

_His name coming from Spike's lips always felt like a bucket of ice thrown in her stomach, and this time was no different. She scrambled from his embrace, backing away from the bed. "Don't you say his name," She said between clenched teeth, anything from having to say something about what he'd actually said._

_He angrily jumped from the bed, unheeded by his nakedness. "He's dead, Buffy! Gone! Why can't you accept it and try to move on?" He asked, desperately, pleadingly. "It's been God knows how many months! I've been trying, Buffy. I've been tryin' so hard to help you out of this – this numb state you're in but…" He trailed off, shaking his and looking down. "I can't anymore," He finally mumbled._

_Strange dread started forming Buffy's gut. Was he going to leave her? Who else had she to turn to if, he left?__ "What are you saying?" She asked, her voice low._

"_I'm saying I can't be what you want. No matter how __hard I try it'll never be enough. Not with the way I am now." He sighed, looking down at his feet. "I'm leaving."_

_Oh God. The numbness was creeping up on her, slow but steady, threatening to take over her whole being where before it had somewhat been fading. "Are you coming back?" She sounded strangely detached as she asked this._

"_I don't know," He said_

The last thing he'd told her before he left was that he loved her. And now he had already been gone three weeks, and Buffy had never felt more alone. Now she truly had no one. No Angel. No Spike. Her friends were all too happily in love. Even her mother was dating someone.

She closed her book and curled up in her bed, clutching Mr. Gordo the stuffed pig closely to her body. What was there to live for anymore?

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Angel sighed deeply as he walked the cemetery, stake in hand, looking for any kind of evil to kill. He was glad they finally split up, because he wasn't sure how much longer he could have trailed behind the blonde couple as they whispered and touched each other, doing their 'best' to keep the display to a minimum for his sake. Or at least he knew Buffy was trying, while Spike was doing the exact opposite. He was just loving the hell out of this whole situation.

He didn't even know why he bothered to patrol. Especially with them. It wasn't like he was really needed, or that he enjoyed the experience. It was more that he tried to keep up some resemblance of normalcy for himself by pretending he still had some good to do here. Maybe he should just go alone all the time from now on, save himself the extra heartache that occurred each and every time he saw _them_ together.

He scoffed. 'From now on'. Who knew how much longer he would be stuck in this dimension? Another week? A month? Forever?

It had been over a week already, and every day just got worse. He missed Buffy. Worried about her. Wondered if she knew he was gone, if she was looking for him, worried about him. Every day he looked into the other Buffy's eyes and it hurt all over again because she loved someone else. Spike.

He growled subconsciously as he thought about what he would like to do to his pest of a grandchilde. He knew from experience how many ways of torture he could endure before giving in to whatever he wanted of him.

Shaking his head, as if to shake the thoughts, which were a bit too 'Angelus' for his liking, away from him, he was glad to see a fledgling crawling from his grave. A short distraction. He waited until the new vampire was ready, and attacked. Taking his time fighting, before eventually staking him.

It was when he was headed towards the gates of the cemetery, near the gatekeeper's house, that he stopped in his tracks. A scent coming to him. He changed to his demonic visage to be able to get a stronger smell, and widened his eyes when he recognized it. He took off running to where it was coming from, the house. Without knocking he tried the door and found it open, the lock broken. He went inside the one-room home, taking in the small living room area, kitchenette and another area around the corner he couldn't see, probably functioned as a bedroom. The smell of blood was strong in the air, but it was already a few days old. And he knew who it was from, and also knew that he was dead. That was all too clear from the smell of it.

He walked to the cornered off area, to where a small trail of blood lead. Sure enough, there was a bed. On it, the pale, sweating body of a wide eyed Holtz. There were bitemarks in his neck, making it obvious what had killed him.

"Hello Angel,"

Startled by the sudden noise, Angel spun around to come face to face with a man – no, demon with shaggy long hair. He could have passed for human if it wasn't for the face. "Do I know you?" He asked with narrowed eyes.

"No. I'm Sahjhan. But that doesn't really matter right now." The demon, Sahjhan, said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I see you found our friend, here." He gestured to the dead man lying on the bed.

"Yeah," Angel said suspiciously, with a glance behind him. "You know what happened?"

Sahjhan shrugged. "He got careless, the old fool. Probably didn't take into account that this little keeper's house wasn't exactly closed off to vampires, since no human officially owns it anymore." He frowned and put his hand in his pockets. "What a waste too, travelled all the way to the future to extract his revenge, only to be killed be some itty bitty fledge."

"What's your involvement in all this?"

"Well I helped him get here of course. Perform a little ritual, keep a man safe in a stone for a few hundred years, another ritual et voila, here we are."

"Why? What's in it for you?" Angel took a step to the left to get some more space, should this turn to a fight.

"Oh you know, the usual, blood of a virgin, street-cred, respect from my demon buddies, heaps of tribute, that kind of thing." Sahjhan rolled his eyes. "Come on, bub, why I did what I did is really not the issue here. It's moot now anyway, wouldn't you say?"

"Then why are you here?"

"To give you this," he held up what appeared to be a seal or amulet of sorts, "cleaning up what Holtz started. Who knows, he might have been satisfied enough with the results as they are now, so he had his revenge after all. I have no use for his little plan now anymore anyhow."

He tossed to object to Angel, who caught it swiftly. He looked at it with a frown. "What is it?"

"You'll figure it out." Was all the demon said, before he was suddenly gone.

Staring at the space Sahjhan had occupied moments ago, Angel contemplated what he'd just been told. Did this mean he could go home? Provided what the demon had said was true, something that could of course not be trusted. It just seemed far too simple. He turned around to look at Holtz. What exactly had his revenge plan been? Why had he brought them to this dimension? He examined the object he'd been given thoughtfully.

Whatever it was, it might just be the key to ending this whole thing. He just didn't know if that was a good thing or not.

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"What is it?" Buffy questioned, as they all peered at the object Angel had laid on the table. He'd come in later that evening, having burned Holtz's body as some final show of respect, and explained what had happened earlier to the Scoobies assembled in the Magic Box. Thankfully Spike wasn't present at the moment.

"Looks like an amulet of some sorts," Willow muttered.

Anya picked up the amulet and looked at it carefully. With a shrug she put it back down. "Well, as far as my knowledge of dimensions and amulets may go, I'm not familiar with this one."

"And he just gave it to you? Didn't say anything about it?" Buffy glanced at Angel, who leaned against the counter, hands in his pockets.

"All he said was 'You'll figure it out,' which either means that something will happen with it, or that we'll have to search for its meaning ourselves in –"

" – Books, always the books! " Xander groaned and slumped in his seat.

"If I still used my magic I could figure it out in a second," Willow muttered quietly, not really intending anyone to hear her. Nonetheless Buffy turned a sharp eye on her. "I won't, of course. I know I can't. I was just saying." She backtracked apologetically, not having meant to sound so bitter about it. She didn't want them to get the wrong idea, especially now that things with Tara were looking up.

"Alright so –" Angel watched Buffy perk up at the same moment he sensed an all too familiar vampire in the vicinity. "Uhm, so yeah, you guys get started on that research thing. I just uh, remembered I forgot to patrol the uh - the uh, Westwood cemetery. I'll see you later guys!" With that she all but ran for the door, where Angel had no doubt Spike was waiting for her.

"Well that's just not fair. How come she gets to go have sex with Spike while we're stuck here with the boring stuff?" Anya complained as she flipped through her bridal magazine.

"Honey I'm sure she's not going to –" Xander started to placate her, but just then Spike walked briskly by the window, dragging a giggling Buffy by the hand. "Yeah okay nevermind."

"Well if they're going, _we_ could…"

Angel drowned out the rest of what Anya was saying as he looked at the window, another stab of pain filling his heart. God. He had to get out of this dimension and back to his own. He didn't know how much longer he could take this.

It wasn't just that she was together with Spike and rather publicly at that. It was also the glaringly obvious fact that she no longer really seemed to care about him. She hadn't even hesitated for one second the bail on the research which could very well help him get home. She may feel sorry for him, but when it came down to it she couldn't care less about his predicament.

He just couldn't help but wonder how it was possible that things in this dimension had gotten to the point that there apparently was no trace of him left in her life.

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_Oh dear oh dear, could this really be Angel´s way back home? Or is it Holtz´s final diabolical scheme? Find out soon (hopefully) on Something Blue, New and Borrowed!...Maybe I should change the title…_


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